Lucy Bailey deftly managed the tricky balance of horror and comedy in her direction of Titus Andronicus at the Globe for some critics, but fell short on tragedy for others.
Despite the notorious difficulty of the play, the Independent's Paul Taylor acclaimed the production as "probably the best I've seen at Shakespeare's Globe in the 10 years of its existence." The Telegraph called it "shatteringly powerful and inventive" and the Financial Times "riveting."
Designer William Dudley was roundly praised for his use of a dark canopy to block out sunlight and transform the Globe's pillars, stage and musicians' gallery into a claustrophobic temple of death.
As Titus, Douglas Hodge successfully conveyed both hilarity and grief to the Telegraph, and was "convincingly fierce" for the Financial Times if still "too shouty and fidgety." But for the Evening Standard he "played for laughs", ruining any chances of "psychological subtlety and rigour" in the production.
The Times reserved most of its praise for the performances of Geraldine Alexander as a "witchy, rage-filled" Tamora and Laura Rees who as the raped, mutilated Lavinia created "the production's most powerful symbolic image."
But the reviewer also left concerned that "the mood is more gleeful Grand Guignol than genuine, heart-stopping terror. It's gripping, but it lacks compassion."
