Andronicus Synecdoche @ ZOO Southside
Song of the Goat's bold, multi-disciplinary work sacrifices intersectionality in its exploration of power and sexual violence
Based on Shakespeare's grisly tragedy Titus Andronicus, Song of the Goat's multi-disciplinary adaptation Andronicus Synecdoche distils the brutal violence of the original text. The piece combines thrilling folk instrumentals and choral music with dance and physical theatre. It is a deeply affecting indictment of state-sanctioned violence against women.
In the story of Titus Andronicus, a cycle of murder and sexual violence coalesces with a broader cycle of war and subjugation. Andronicus Synecdoche is a Brechtian meditation on sexual violence, in which the ravaged Lavinia is a gestic archetype, a brutalised canvas on which masculinity is enacted and recorded.
The production does meet a few stumbling blocks. The newly-written lyrics, shared via projector, are incisive and thrilling, while the play is interspersed with excerpts from the original text, usually delivered by Titus's brother Marcus (Grzegorz Bral) who acts as a narrator. Titus (Yorgos Onisiforou) also delivers a fair bit of his original dialogue, but the delivery of these lines is broadly unconvincing. Set against the new words, the halting pace of Shakespeare's text intercedes against the overall tempo of the piece.
Andronicus Synecdoche also trips over a representational obstacle – the character of Aaron, who is Black (and about whom there is so, so much to say), is definitively non-Black in this adaptation. The chained archetype of the Prisoner isn't always Aaron. But, especially by including Shakespeare's dialogue about his race, the representation of Blackness by a non-Black performer cannot be escaped. It's a bizarre and critical failure of intersectionality, especially given that the added text is explicit about the racist attitudes of the Andronici towards Aaron.
Enacting an archetype of Blackness against a whitewashed backdrop positions whiteness, however unintentionally, as the default. It isolates and alienates marginalities, reinforcing systemic violence where there should be solidarity. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a certain amount of racial awareness from experimental theatre, especially when other forms of systemic violence are depicted with such sensitivity and power. All I can say is that, if you have never felt pinched by racial difference, you may get a lot out of this piece. But it's a lens that, no matter how far race is abstracted or re-interpreted, some of us can never shake – and I don't want to.
Andronicus Synecdoche, ZOO Southside (Main House), until 27 Aug (not 14 or 21), 8.20pm, £17-19