Troughton/Adegbola/Gwynne - Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus

Titus has returned from a brutal 10-year war having lost 21 sons in battle. Betrayed by his nation, and with his family in pieces, a series of bloody events follows as he and Tamora, Queen of the Goths, begin a violent cycle of revenge. Rape, cannibalism, mutilation and murder are the gruesome tools in Shakespeare's bloodiest play. 'There's fantastic work, throughout, from Troughton, grizzled, grey-faced, buttoned-up and stiff-limbed � a loyal old warrior surviving battles abroad only to be betrayed at home, driven to clarifying madness by his blind adherence to a heartless state. He catches Titus's rasping, ramrod arrogance, his crumpling up with agony, and the particular macabre pathos too of his wildly empathetic raving in defence of a slain fly: How if that fly had a father and a mother?...' (The Daily Telegraph)