Does anyone else remember a production of Titus Andronicus from around 2002-2003 in Seattle? I went when I was in high school and it was excellent. The set design used different types of lighting to great effect, the performances were chilling, and the entire audience of high school students, deadly silent until this point, burst out in laughter during the meat pie scene: "where are my sons?" (points to pies) "there they are!" I would argue that the element of parody serves as a foil to the brutality and reinforces the layer of plebeian entertainment at the core of any Shakespeare play.

@1 Most likely Bart Sher's production at Intiman.

What did people think about adding lines to the script I'm no Shakespearean purest but they stuck out a lot and to very little effect. Did anyone who saw the show or work on it have any insight into that?

I don't know if I have any insight to add to the addition of lines. The modern day adlibs didn't seem to hurt the show at all, though they certainly threw me because they were so sparse, so I wasn't sure I knew what they were trying to say with them.

However, the addition of lines from Romeo and Juliet in Lucis' banishment speech I found to be very bizzar. Those two scenes have nothing more in common than theme. I don't see how those lines illuminated anything new to the show or scene. No two scenes could be more dissimilar, their times, settings, and purpose are completely different. Not to mention Lucius and Romeo are very very different characters, and serve different purposes in each show.

Did anyine else notice this?

@1: Saw it at Intiman. It was stomach-churning, in the best possible way. I took a date and she clamped down on my arm with a vice-like grip the whole time.