Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The set is sleek: all grey and white marble surfaces and opaque glass doors. But an ominous gurgling sound rumbles in the background as you take your seats at Stratford\u2019s Swan Theatre. Worse, there\u2019s a gutter around the stage and front row spectators are issued with blankets to protect them from the blood. This is Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare\u2019s notoriously violent play. The Rome portrayed here is built on brutal conquest and, beneath the glossy veneer of civilisation, the place seethes with animal instincts, murderous discontent and the visceral desire for revenge. Joanna Scotcher\u2019s clinical design soon resembles an abattoir.Max Webster\u2019s new RSC staging \u2014 very grim, very gory, very good \u2014 is modern dress: Simon Russell Beale\u2019s excellent general Titus arrives in a grey overcoat. But Webster doesn\u2019t reference any specific contemporary conflict, instead letting the play\u2019s shocking resonance speak for itself. And what becomes plain here, as one atrocity piles upon another, is that brutality begets brutality, cruelty often comes disguised as \u201chonour\u201d and violence is a one-way street to hell.When the victorious Titus ignores the desperate pleas of captive queen Tamora to spare her son \u2014 instead mercilessly hewing him apart and ceremoniously burning his bones in front of her \u2014 he sets in motion a hideous cycle of vengeance. Wendy Kweh\u2019s compelling Tamora hammers her grief into icy, determined rage, and, having caught the eye and hand in marriage of Joshua James\u2019s creepily fascistic Emperor Saturninus, uses her newly found power to exact payback.As Aaron the Moor snaps on rubber gloves and revs a huge chainsaw, Elon Musk-style, the audience giggles nervouslySoon the horrors are piling high, culminating, famously, in cannibalism. It\u2019s interesting that Shakespeare often reserves his greatest condemnation for what we would now describe as war crimes: the slaughter of civilians, the murder of children, the rape of women. Webster deals well with the violence, using a mix of anticipation and clever lighting (Lee Curran) to deliver the impact without being sensational. Occasionally this produces a brief moment of gallows humour \u2014 as Aaron the Moor heaves on pulleys, snaps on rubber gloves and revs a huge chainsaw, Elon Musk-style, the audience giggles nervously. But the atrocities hit home, never more so than when Titus\u2019s ravaged and mutilated daughter Lavinia (Letty Thomas) is dragged on to stage on a bloodied plastic sheet, a terrible, silent mass.Her piteous story is at the heart of this production, which foregrounds the importance of children as the impetus for much of the anguished desire for vengeance. We become very aware of young Lucius (played by Tristan Arthur on opening night), Titus\u2019s grandson, who is exposed to so many horrors that he ends by joining in.Performances are strong across the board, with Emma Fielding commanding as Marcia, Titus\u2019s sister (brother in the original), and Natey Jones outstanding as Aaron, a man hardened into cynicism after his endless experience of racist abuse and oppression. Russell Beale finds rich depth, pity and madness in Titus. And while the crew come on with squeegees to clear up at the end, the message is clear: the bloodstains are not consigned to history.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606To June 7, rsc.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The set is sleek: all grey and white marble surfaces and opaque glass doors. But an ominous gurgling sound rumbles in the background as you take<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296200,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296198\/revisions\/296200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}