Using Set Design and Costuming to Enhance the Thematic Elements in a Production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus is one of the least well-known and performed of Shakespeare's plays. At least in contemporary times. Historically, Titus Andronicus was a favorite among theater owners because it was always a crowd please, what with the on-stage mutilation of characters. Titus Andronicus offers up a perfect opportunity for showing how costuming and set design can play a significant role in getting across certain thematic elements associated with this bloody revenge tragedy. Lavinia is often viewed in this play as a symbol of sacred chastity and the loss of virginity through a violent gang rape is seen as a threat to the continuity of the power structure. As such, one would quite normally expect Lavinia to be costumed in white to further underscore the signifying of her as the character of purity and virgin innocence. On the other hand, Tamora is a character often considered far more villainous than Lady Macbeth; it is her sons who are responsible for the rape of Lavinia and Tamora is hardly a prize herself. How interesting, therefore, would it be to costume Tamora in a white robe and Lavinia in a red robe.

To do so undermines the obvious symbolism of those two colors that audiences have been conditioned to expect. The unexpected reversal of the colors these two women wear would be a way to enhance the idea that Lavinia has been violated and stripped of her innocence, essentially at the hands of Tamora in figurative if not literal terms. The red robe of Lavinia can also imply the violence that is enacted upon her and, further, act to foreshadow the voluminous amount of blood that will be spilled throughout the play as Titus wreaks vengeance on her despoilers. By contract, the whiteness of Tamora's robe acts as an ironic counterpoint to the idea that this wantonly sexual woman is the symbolic possessor of Lavinia's lost virginity. The choice also works to confirm that critical idea that though Tamora is hardly admirable, she is still inarguably a loyal and committed mother to her sons, cretins that they are. In fact, it may even mean more for Tamora to be a loving mother figure to such hideous offspring.