Director turns 'Titus Andronicus' into an intriguing piece of theater

It's all fun and games until someone gets his throat slashed and winds up as pie filling.

That irreverent inversion of the old "it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt" adage underscores director Charles Newell's shrewd staging of William Shakespeare's gruesome revenge tragedy "Titus Andronicus" for Court Theatre.

A sobering depiction of the human toll relentless pursuit of vengeance takes on the innocent as well as the guilty, its complicated plot, prosaic language and surfeit of gore rank "Titus" as one of Shakespeare's lesser tragedies. But Newell transforms the inferior, infrequently staged work notable for its double-digit body count and escalating violence into an intriguing piece of theater.

Staged as a play-within-a-play, Newell's adaptation emerges as a nifty bit of meta-theater. Actors slip in and out of character to comment, seemingly spontaneously, on the action. Also some of the actors playing the four sets of brothers appearing in this play alternate roles at each performance. Such a casting stunt matters little to the general audience, but it adds subtext that gives theater geeks a charge.

Armed with a great play, Court's resources and an exceptional cast that includes Timothy Edward Kane, Kevin Gudahl and Hollis Resnik, an accomplished director like Newell could produce a competent show without breaking a sweat. Where's the challenge in that? The greater challenge is to take a mediocre play and make something memorable of it. Newell does so by taking liberties. They're apparent in the stylized opening set to Peter Gabriel's music (which underscores the production) followed by the playful, almost giddy tone that characterizes the show's first 40 minutes. Purists may disapprove, but I admire Newell's boldness in re-imagining this early offering which my Shakespeare devotee cousin Jackie Hopkins describes as the "'Friday the 13th' of Elizabethan drama." Abstract and compact (two hours, no intermission), Newell's "Titus" emerges as a riff on the aforementioned axiom: It's all fun until someone gets hurt.

Like it or hate it, you won't forget it.

The play begins as a post-dinner divertissement enacted by the members of a patrician, vaguely militaristic Skull and Bones-type society. Guests take on roles from the play in this perversion of a parlor game, which unfolds on architect Leigh Breslau's elegant contradiction of a set. Pale green walls and industrial-looking ironwork hint at a prison, while the mirrored walls, gossamer curtains and silver chandeliers suggest a posh estate.

The story centers on Roman general Titus Andronicus, played by Timothy Edward Kane (whose fervor makes up for his youth), a Shakespeare veteran getting at last the lead he so richly deserves. After 10 years fighting the Goths, Titus returns home with his prisoners: Tamora, Queen of the Goths (Hollis Resnik), her sons (Andy Nagraj and Corey Rieger) and her Moorish lover Aaron (Phillip James Brannon). Refusing clemency, Titus executes Tamora's oldest son (whose comically portrayed death reflects the initial lighthearted mood) in accordance with Roman law and to avenge his sons killed in the war. This sets up a barbaric game of one-upmanship, in which Tamora -- who soon after marries the emperor Saturninus (Matt Schwader) -- takes revenge on Titus and his family. Titus responds in kind with the feuding families committing increasingly gruesome atrocities upon each other. Caught up in the brutality are Titus' son Lucius (Matthew Brumlow); daughter Lavinia (Elizabeth Ledo) and her fiance Bassianus (Anish Jethmalani) and Titus' brother Marcus (Kevin Gudahl).

The lighthearted mood grows darker. Subtly but surely, frivolity gives way to an almost rapturous display of cruelty. Overwhelmed by their "roles" these "actors," succumb to their basest instincts and a diversion becomes deadly.

But we don't need Shakespeare to remind us of the evil humans are capable of. So long as revenge, rage and lust motivate, the flawed "Titus Andronicus" endures.

"Titus Andronicus"

3½ out of four

Location: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago

Times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 10

Running time: Two hours, no intermission

Parking: Free lot adjacent to theater

Tickets: $32-$54

Box office: (773) 753-4472 or www.courttheatre.org

Rating: For adults, contains violence, including sexual violence, strong language