The Story

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Tragedy: Shakespeare Served with a Hearty Helping of Satire

Apr. 6, 2007 | By Casey Cleverly, DSJ Staff Reporter

General Titus kills one of his sons because he’s a tap dancer, his daughter is raped and mutilated and the heads of two other sons are delivered to him in a birthday box - but it’s just another bad day for the Andronicus family.

Don’t find this funny? In �"Tragedy! (A Musical Comedy),” writer and director Mike Johnson (‘09) tries his hardest to make you laugh at the perverse. The play showed in the Commonwealth Auditorium Monday night to Thursday night. Johnson based it on William Shakespeare’s �"Titus Andronicus,” but he modernized the language and added seventeen original songs. It’s �"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” mixed with �"Jesus Christ Superstar.”

The plot follows the outline of Shakespeare’s original tale of revenge. The Roman General Titus Andronicus (Francis Van Wetering,‘10) returns home after conquering the Goths and taking the Queen, Tamora (Katherine Goulde, ‘10), and her sons captive. The Romans nominate Titus as the next emperor, but he declines the crown and instead gives it the last emperor’s eldest son, Saturninus (Josh Litten, ‘09). Saturninus’ younger brother, Bassianus (Megan Ammirati, ‘10), runs off with Titus’s only daughter, Lavinia, (Lauren Huyett, ‘10) despite her father’s wish for her to marry the emperor. Saturninus in turn marries Tamora.

What ensues is a wild tale of Romans vs. Goths, where eventually Lavinia is raped and mutilated by Tamora’s sons, and in return, the sons are baked into a pie and served to Tamora at a dinner party. Hate to ruin the end, but everyone dies.

Johnson takes the characters to the extreme: Lavinia is a spoiled princess; the soldiers are homosexual do-wop singers; the emperor is a maniac pill popper; Bassianus is the classic Shakespearean woman cross dresser; Chiron and Demetrius are demented teenage head- bangers; and Tamora is a nymphomaniac.

And in another twist, the bad guy is (gasp) a woman! The villain Aaron the Moor of Shakespeare’s tale is now Erin in Johnson’s version. Sophomore Piper Wright masterfully commanded the role. As emcee and narrator to the tale, the musical was Erin’s version of the story, and she was not to be crossed. One UVA cap-wearing prep answered a cell phone in the front row and…. well, it wasn’t pretty.

With the addition of Johnson’s catchy pop music, Shakespeare’s original seemed a tad ridiculous, but that was clearly the point. The memorable opening song, appropriately entitled �"Tragedy,” epitomized the sublime cheesiness of musicals. It was a full cast number complete with tacky box steps and spirit fingers.

The cast had an uneven mix of vocal abilities that was not helped by the Commonwealth Auditorium’s shaky sound system. Lavinia’s ballad �"At Least I Can Sing” showed off a trained singing voice. Too bad her tongue gets cut out.

Using Monroe Scholar money for the budget, Johnson’s production lacked only in spectacle. The backdrop consisted of a painted black board depicting the Seven Wonders of the World. The chorus at one point was forced to take on the role of the trees. However, the cast’s gift for comic timing and the well-crafted script made up for any flaws that resulted from a small budget and sub-par acoustics.

Johnson’s satire rested on irony and sight gags. When Titus returns from Goth land, all Marcus receives is a tunic that reads, �"My brother went off to fight the Goths, and all I got was this lousy tunic.” Before her hands are cut off, everyone asks Lavinia to lend them a hand. There was even a whole number emphasizing the sexual innuendo of the phrase, �"I have done thy mother,” sung by the character �"Mother Lover” (Myron Kimble, ‘10). When the messenger entered, he shakes maracas and dances in daisy-dukes. (Yep, he gets killed.)

The show poked fun at nearly everything - religious views, ethnic origins, sexual orientation, race - but at the end, Erin offered no apologies: �"If our shadows have offended, then…GOOD.”