Production of Titus offers bloody good show
Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan’s first foray into puppet theatre with an adaptation of Titus Andronicus features blood, vengeance, some surprisingly involved puppet sex — and it is strikingly well done.
Friday night’s performance was shocking entertainment. Between the decapitations, disembowelments and the many disarming moments (pun intended), it was probably for the best that this particular play was done with puppets.
The plot of Titus Andronicus follows the titular Titus (Kenn Mcleod) as he returns victorious from war with the Goths. After sacrificing the Goth Queen Tamora’s son, Tamora (Kristi Friday) begins a plot of bloody revenge against Titus and his entire family that steadily takes its toll on Titus’ mind.
As characters were killed off (it is a tragedy, after all) the “dead bodies” were left in windows cut into the back of the stage, acutely reminding the audience of the body count as the six-person cast went through a multitude of different puppets.
But don’t allow the use of puppets to fool you into thinking this is a light or simple show. The scene after Titus’ daughter Lavinia is assaulted and disfigured in the woods was gut-wrenching. Leaving only the female performers on stage to watch in horror and pity as Lavinia (Sarah Bergbusch) struggles to recover from the attack was draining to watch, and a stroke of genius from director Will Brooks. It might have been the most powerful moment in any of the company’s performances this year, and it came through a puppet.
And that’s what made this show a victory: The audience became invested in the puppets instead of the people holding them. The entire cast overcame a bit of a slow start before really sinking into their characters. Kristi Friday was easy to spot as the most experienced puppeteer and for her powerful performance as Tamora, but Mackenzie Dawson as new emperor Saturninus and Tamora’s surviving sons was a close second in terms of real in character puppet work.
There were a handful of moments in the show when the human puppeteers became side characters in the puppet show, the most notable of which was when certain puppets would be injured or killed and a performer would bleed with them (using blood packs). But the puppeteering was solid enough that this felt unnecessary, and too often pulled us away from the world that the cast and crew took great pains to draw us into.
What did work throughout was the live music played by cellist Scott Mcknight and the use of a projector to add both scenic ambience and visual effects. The technical side of the show deserves note simply because of how slick it was, with only one glitch where a puppet lost limbs too early.
And yes, there was a puppet sex scene. The strangest thing about it was the number of puppeteers needed to pull it off — and how disturbingly convincing it was.
In the simplest terms, there has never been anything quite like this performed at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan before. And it’s a spectacle you don’t want to miss.