Titus Andronicus is Shakespearean grand guignol—Harold Bloom called it “a horror opera, Stephen King turned loose among the Romans and the Goths.”  The play opens with the title character (Patrick Page) returning from a ten-year war that has taken twenty-one of his twenty-five sons.  It ends with him feeding his enemy, Tamora (Francesca Faridany), her sons (Adam Langdon and Jesse Aaronson), baked into a meat pie.  In between, those sons rape his daughter, Lavinia (Olivia Reis), and leave her without tongue or hands, an attempt to prevent testimony.  More Eli Roth than Stephen King, if you ask me.

The current revival of Titus Andronicus by Red Bull Theater, directed by Jesse Berger, does have some strengths.  The first and most obvious is Page, whose rich basso voice lends itself to musical villains and Shakespearean heroes.  Before Hamlet did the same, Titus feigns madness, and these are the scenes where Page most excels.  Serving his pies, he is full of manic glee.  He wears a chef’s hat, and dinner is accompanied by an instrumental version of “Wonderful World.”  The violence is also handled well.  I liked the plastic baggies of body parts, and I was grateful the production used the folio version of Titus’ line to Lavinia, “Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth,” more effective than the quarto version (“between thine arms”), and suggesting Reis’ decision to carry one of those baggies between her teeth—just the kind of gruesome image the play encourages.

Still, outside of the major scenes, the production feels slow.  It doesn’t quite have the urgency or energy the text demands.  The scenic design is little more than columns and tables, which swallow up the actors and make the sets feel static.  Without clear transitions between scenes, you lose the momentum of a propulsive narrative.  Furthermore, the choice to make Tamora’s sons behave like frat boys did not, for me at least, work.  Page is big draw, but I’m not sure he’s enough to justify this Titus Andronicus.

Titus Andronicus runs through May 3rd at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre.  480 W. 42nd Street  New York, NY.  2 hours minutes.  One intermission. Photograph by Carol Rosegg.