“The desecration of Lavinia by a pair of slavering delinquents has a soul-shrivelling immediacy. Unfortunately, Tresnjak, no doubt taking a leaf from the Coen Brothers, also wants to be funny in places” – Scroll down in the multi-production review

2 Stars: Perhaps the most interesting performance of the night is that of Dion Johnstone as the villainous Aaron. There’s no easy cardboard stereotype here; the character is carefully shaped and given real feelings and emotions. Titus is a difficult assignment in this day and age but it can work. However, despite some good moments, thanks mainly to Vickery, Ferry and Johnstone, this production comes up short.

John Vickery…has one of the most resonant stage voices in the company and he uses it to good effect. Sean Arbuckle 7 strikes the perfect note of pompous arrogance as Saturninus, and David Ferry drips with compassion as Titus’s brother Marcus, the only central character left standing after the carnage. Dion Johnstone simultaneously attracts and repulses as Tamora’s Moorish lover, Aaron.

4 Stars: “…it all turns into more of a good-natured blood-bath — think Halloween: The Roman Years — than a thoughtful treatise on the excesses of revenge. For a certain audience, it’s a good time, although for many, not necessarily good Shakespeare….Tresnjak allows his highly graphic production to get too caught up in the how of the outrages the play documents, consigning the more compelling why to a secondary role.”

3 Stars: A “Must Read”, positive, review from Nestruck with many pop-culture references, including one about director Darko Tresnjak’s B-movie take on the play and John Vickery, who has appeared on three Star Trek spinoffs, “[he]….doesn’t so much speak as sing his lines, often giving them an ironic curl at the end that makes him sound like a sardonic Isaac Hayes.”