A lot of pies, no lopped-off hands
How to turn Shakespeare’s goriest play into a family romp? The Actors’ Gang approach: Throw in rubber chickens, water balloons and clowns.
Shakespeare’s vengeful epic “Titus Andronicus” is truly nasty, with mass murder, mutilation, cannibalism and blood galore. The Actors’ Gang, the edgy, well-regarded small theater company co-founded by actor Tim Robbins, has reimagined the tale as “Titus the Clownicus,” defanging it with comedy and a moral: Violence -- even if it comes as a pie in the face -- begets violence.
The show runs weekend mornings in free outdoor performances through Sept. 9 in Media Park in Culver City, adjacent to the company’s home base at the Ivy Substation.
In the original, conquering Roman general Titus returns home with the defeated queen of the Goths and her sons in tow. The older son is killed at Titus’ order, and then Titus’ daughter Lavinia is assaulted by Queen Tamora’s surviving sons, who cut out her tongue and lop off her hands for good measure. Ick. And that’s just for starters.
The Gang’s commedia dell’arte version, loosely adapted by playwright Angela Berliner, pits Titus’ Red Nose clowns against the Queen’s Green Nose clowns.
“The first challenge was in not making it terrifying for families,” yet still delivering the moral of the tale, said director Justin Zsebe, who also recorded a comic pastiche of pop songs as a score for the show.
Costume designer Ann Closs-Farley and set designer François-Pierre Couture contributed found-object visual humor, enhancing the feel of a troupe of ragtag traveling players -- portrayed by adult professionals, plus three students from the company’s education program for grade school through high school (and a few key puppets). They perform on a small stage resembling a cutout of the Ivy Substation behind them.
“Once we found the ‘in’ into the play, making it a clown show,” Berliner said, “it almost wrote itself. Instead of violence and hands being lopped off and killings, you have pie fights or water balloon fights.”
Here, for instance Titus’ daughter, “Laughinia,” fares markedly better: In a Punch-and-Judy-style burlesque, she’s pelted with water balloons and fed peanut butter -- causing her to speak only Spanish -- and her hands are stuck in one of those little woven Chinese finger traps.
“Adults who happen to know the play will pick up on the references,” Zsebe said. “A lot of them we fly through with a line reference or a staging reference” -- such as the suspicious birth of the Queen’s “no-nose” baby -- “and then keep it going.”
Two clown-nosed pies stand in for the play’s cannibalistic feast. The scene comes with a disclaimer referring to a certain ubiquitous fairy tale. The gentle reminder of a theme common to such childhood fare is meant to deflect any parental dismay.
“I thought that baking the sons into pies would be a problem,” Berliner said, “but then I remembered ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ and I didn’t think I needed to cut that out.”
The gooey, slapstick end to this clown war, delivered with “a sort of Actors’ Gang-style timeliness,” Berliner said, points up how “the ridiculous and irrational fear of the other can breed a cycle of violence.”
This is the company’s second unlikely Shakespearean family outing. Last year, “Pericles” (incest, violence, prostitution) became “Pericles on the High Seas,” a G-rated vaudeville also written by Berliner. She’s already plotting next year’s romp -- based on “King Lear.”
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‘Titus the Clownicus’
Where: Media Park,
9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City
When: 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Ends: Sept. 9
Price: Free
Running time: 45 minutes
Contact: (310) 838-4264, www.theactorsgang.com
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