Portland's The Canon Shakespeare Company Presents TITUS ANDARNICUS A Sock Puppet Version Of Shakespeare's Classic

The Canon Shakespeare Company will present its online, filmed production of TITUS ANDARNICUS: a darkly hilarious sock puppet version of Shakespeare's bloodiest revenge play, Titus Andronicus.

TITUS ANDARNICUS can be viewed on YouTube by donation, beginning March 19 (any size donation grants unlimited viewing). To donate and view TITUS ANDARNICUS, patrons can visit www.CanonPDX.org/donate-1, or email company@canonpdx.org.

Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus is set in the Roman empire and follows patriarch Titus as he returns home from successfully conquering the Goths. While he struggles to stay out of the political maneuverings of the brothers battling for the title of Emperor, he is unaware that the Queen of the Goths - with the help of her psychopathic lover and ally, Aaron the Moor - will use whatever means necessary to seek revenge on him and decimate his family.

TITUS ANDARNICUS is a 90-minute version of the original which preserves much of its signature brutality, including the off-stage rape and mutilation of one character, another character chopping his own hand off, two others beheaded and their heads presented to Titus, and multiple grisly murders and deceptions. The juxtaposition of sock puppets inflicting, and falling prey to, this violence creates the black humor that is the cornerstone of the production - as are the sock jokes sprinkled throughout the text, including the debut of "Aaron the Wool" as the Goth Queen's illicit lover and co-conspirator.

"This is one of those uniquely 'pandemic' artistic projects," said Stephanie Crowley, whose original concept started The Canon Shakespeare Company on this path almost 18 months ago. "I don't think anyone could have given a project like this the time and support it needed during 'normal' times. Each of us involved in the production was doing something we'd never even tried before - sometimes multiple things."

The script was adapted by The Canon Shakespeare Company's co-founder Alec Henneberger, who was similarly captured by the idea. "The Canon's overarching mission is to pull Shakespeare down from the pedestal," he explains. "People have this notion of his work being high-brow 'Art' full of poetry and philosophy. But in reality, alongside those, we also find sex and violence, romance and revenge, slapstick clowning, terrible puns, and the greatest collection of dirty jokes ever assembled. And putting it into puppet form just makes it feel even more user-friendly, and maybe gives people a well-deserved laugh or two."

Titus Andronicus was one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, and typically ranked as one of his weakest. Wild, absurd, and bloody, it is a far cry from the heights of heady philosophy. Yet it is a beautiful insight into Shakespeare's learning years - not an example of a good writer crafting a mediocre play, but a mediocre play crafting a good writer. For all its multiple structural deficiencies, it still has its gems and special moments of beautiful poetry.

"Maybe right now we all need what this play has to teach us," muses Henneberger: "that if you want to be good at something, you sometimes have to be terrible at it, first. At the time of writing Titus, Shakespeare was an unskilled artist with immense potential. If no one had supported his early and unpolished work, we would not still know his name today."

TITUS ANDARNICUS features five actors across three states playing all the parts, filming scenes from their homes and submitting them to The Canon co-founder Genevieve Larson, who edited countless clips into the final project. Stephanie Crowley created 39 sock puppets and associated props (often in multiples, so characters played by different actors could use identical pieces), and plays both Queen Tamora and Titus's daughter Lavinia. The Canon co-founder Ira Kortum plays Titus and his son, Mutius. Alec Henneberger plays imperial brothers Saturninus and Bassianus, and Aaron the Wool. Brent McMorris plays Titus' brother Marcus, Lucius, Young Lucius, Publius, and the Nurse. Coleman McNear plays Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius, Titus' sons Martius and Quintus, Aemillius, the Clown, and a Goth; and her 4-year-old daughter Elizabeth McNear did the crayon and marker drawings that serve as backdrops for the show.

The Canon Shakespeare Company was founded to enrich, educate, and entertain the community through any and all things Shakespeare. The company believes that Shakespeare's works can unite communities with their celebration of humanity in all its forms, and by connecting people with stories everyone can relate to. The company's inaugural production of Hamlet was performed in Portland, OR in January of 2020; in the March lockdown of that year, the company created a weekly, Zoom-based Shakespeare Script Reading Group for actors and non-actors alike to read through Shakespeare plays online. As of this press release, the Script Reading Group has read every play in the canon (some several times) and has begun exploring other classic and "Shakespeare-adjacent" works, as well as revisiting Shakespeare favorites with new themes, concepts, and artistic visions.

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