Untitled

Violence was on my screens this month.

Violence in suburbs, violence at the cinema(Cronenberg's film), violence online (my post on torture) and yesterday, I got some violence without any screen, violence on stage. I went to see a 3h30 hours play written by Botho Strauss (but premiered in Paris before going to German theatres), based on Shakespeare's bloodiest play, Titus Andronicus. The story is actually modified and intensified on some decisive points. The title Shändung has been translated into French as Viol (Rape) which kinda confined the meaning to the sexual side of a mutilation. Actually the play is about the general degradation that spreads itself, propagating its contagion, polluting everything (including the audience!), endlessly giving birth to monsters. And Titus is a monster among others.

There were good things in the play but also horrible ones, and when I say horrible, I don't mean the bloody, gory scenes because that part was actually well done (especially the post-mutilation scene,  a very intense scene when the actress playing Lavinia was staggering on stage, completely naked and covered in blood and plastic in a Laura-Palmer-kind-of-way), no I'm talking about the scenes showing modern life that was outside of the Shakespearian plot or that "making-off" of the performance with pseudo-interviews giving insights on the plot, it was artificial, wordy and pretentious IMO. So the play could have lasted 2 h30 and would have been better without all that post-Bretch stuff.

You're gonna think I'm crazy and/or obsessed but of course now I'm thinking of some connections with the Buffyverse...

( the womb, the hands, the monsters )