(Podcast recorded and produced by Daniel J. Rowe, blog written and edited by Eric Jean)
Welcome back Brawlers to the R–rated slasher film that is Titus Andronicus! This week? Act IV. Because that’s the act that comes after III.
Listen to or download the podcast.
Before we get started though, big congratulations to Bard Brawler Niki Lambros who got to walk across the stage in hooded medieval monk wear to pick up her shiny new Masters diploma!
Here she is looking great and about to make her hasty getaway to meat and booze!
Bard Brawler co-captain Eric Jean (why, that’s me!) was also invited to show but went to work instead and skipped right to the drinking afterwards.
See? Niki and I are both on the same list!
(Feel free to keep calling me the Master of the English Renaissance, Daniel but remember to capitalise that ‘M’ now.)
Alright. So act IV.
You’d think Shakespeare is running out of people to kill, rape and/or mutilate but don’t worry! The fun’s not about to stop now. (Although – and I’m just throwing this out there, Bill – maybe it should. Just a thought.)
Remember Lavinia? Right. She’s got no hands and her tongue was cut out so she couldn’t rat out her rapists, Chiron and Demetrius. Lavinia pointing to a copy of Ovid’s rape-filled Metamorphoses though finally gave someone the bright idea that she might be able to write that out in the dirt by holding a stick in her mouth and guiding it with her arms.
Now that they know who to kill, it’s time for some revenge!
In scene 2 Titus sends Young Lucius over to Demetrius and Chiron to deliver some weapons with a note in Latin. They don’t really get the message but Aaron does and realises that Titus is on to them. Before they can do anything though they hear trumpets sounding which means that Tamora just gave birth to what was supposed to be Saturninus’ son.
Good for him. Except that the nurse rushes in and the kid’s black, which is a bit of a problem for Aaron.
No worries though because Tamora figures they can just kill the baby and then all’s good. Aaron agrees but as soon as he has the kid he decides he’s not going through with it. Instead, he’s going to replace the baby with some other Goth couple’s white baby while they raise his black baby.
Then he kills the nurse so she can’t say anything about it.
Smart. He clearly has everything under control.
Meanwhile, Titus and his allies meet with Marcus and Lucius who fled from Rome and are back now with a sweet Goth army who are mad as hell! They decide that they’ll literally send Saturninus a message by shooting a bunch of arrows with messages from the gods right into the court.
And then, as all great conspirators have done since time immemorial, they recruit a passing clown with a few pigeons to deliver the final message of ‘We’re coming for your ass!’ right to the Emperor for them.
So they of course kill the messenger. Greedy clowns just can’t catch a break, I guess.
It’s just at this moment that a messenger shows up to tell them that a giant Goth army is about to kill Rome and that it’s being led by Titus’ son Lucius who’s crazy popular in Rome. Saturninus starts panicking but Tamora has a cunning plan: she’ll talk Titus down and then he’ll talk Lucius down.
Guess no one bothered to tell her that Titus knows that she helped her sons rape his daughter.
I’m sure he’ll be reasonable.
Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion! My gut (and the fact that I’ve read this before) tells me that this act V might be particularly delectable.
Also, welcome back to the pod legendary sonneteer and LA Kings fan Zoey Baldwin with sonnet 56!
Check out the amazing writers and artists in ‘Zounds!
Mad King, now available. 
Stay in Touch Brawlers!
Follow @TheBardBrawl on Twitter.
Like our Facebook page.
Email the Bard Brawl at bardbrawl@gmail.com
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes
Or leave us a comment right here!
The Bard Brawl 