Globe audience faints at ‘grotesquely violent’ Titus Andronicus
Five faint after seeing the ‘grotesquely violent’ Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare’s Globe, as theatre-goers warn of feeling sick and sleepless nights
Laura Rees playing Lavinia in the 2006 production of Titus Andronicus Photo: ALASTAIR MUIR
With 14 deaths, brutal rape scenes, mutilation and cannibalism, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus has never been one for the fainthearted.
But the gruesome scenes at the Globe Theatre’s latest revival have proved too much for even the most daring of theatre-goers.
Members of the audience have been fainting during the play’s most violent scenes, with others reporting feeling sick and warning of sleepless nights.
The play, a revival of Lucy Bailey’s 2006 production, is publicised with a warning that it is “grotesquely violent and daringly experimental”, with a “terrible cycle of mutilation, rape and murder”.
The play’s most famous scene sees Titus murder the sons of his rival Tamora, Queen of the Goths, later feeding their remains to her in a pie.