Follies in Titus

Performed in Italian and English

Follies in Titus is directed by Italy’s Dario D’Ambrosi, originator of the theatrical movement called Teatro Patologico (Pathological Theater), who re-imagines Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus,” retelling the bard’s bloodiest and most violent work through the voices of the patients of a psychiatric hospital. The play is performed by actors from the Integrated Theater of the Emotions, an Italian university program in performing arts that he founded for people with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“Follies in Titus” was influenced by the intrinsic confrontation with human violence that “Titus Andronicus” evokes in both its audience and its interpreters. This 16th century tragedy, Shakespeare’s first and bloodiest, is the fictional story of Titus, a general during the late Roman Empire, who engages in a cycle of revenge with Tamora, Queen of the Goths. Titus’ murder of Tamora’s eldest son in a ritual of war leads to the rape and mutilation of his own daughter, Lavinia. As his revenge, Titus murders Tamora’s remaining sons, bakes them into pie, and serves them to her at a feast.

The focus of the production is not on Shakespeare’s mixture of horror and vengeance, but rather on the alternation of true and feigned madness. Through a careful exploration of the pathological and psychotic behavior of the protagonists of the play, D’Ambrosi and his collaborators reduced the original text to its essential elements, giving space to the creativity of its actors, who re-tell the play in a fantastical narration through the eyes of psychiatric patients.

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