Jobsite Theater’s fifth season as well as The Center’s 2002–03 Great Clips Play Series opens with the Jobsite Theater/Center Theater Company co-production of the newest adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. This clever adaptation will be directed by Jobsite Artistic Director David Jenkins who has directed Jobsite’s past Halloween hits, Clive Barker’s The History of the Devil and Dracula.

In the story, Titus Andronicus returns to Rome after defeating the Goths, bringing with him Queen Tamora, whose eldest son he sacrifices in front of her to appease the spirits of Rome’s fallen. The emperor is dead, and Rome chooses Titus to name the new leader of the empire. Titus chooses the late emperor’s eldest son, Saturninus, and gives him his daughter Lavinia to marry. However, when Saturninus’ brother runs away with her, claiming her as his own, Saturninus quickly marries Queen Tamora. Through Saturninus, Queen Tamora plots revenge against Titus and his family. Beginning with the rape and mutilation of Lavinia, bloodshed and brutality run rampant, culminating in a cannibalistic banquet scene.

According to S. Clarke Hulse of Sparknotes.com, Titus Andronicus is a play with “14 killings … 6 severed members, 1 rape (or 2 or 3, depending on how you count), 1 live burial, 1 case of insanity and 1 of cannibalism – an average of 5.2 atrocities per act, or one for every 97 lines.”