Photo By Rich Sofranko

Giles Davies (left) and Chris Guthrie portray depraved, bloodthirsty brothers in the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival's Titus Andronicus.

I open my copy of Shakespeare's Complete Works, to find this opening thought in editor G. B. Harrison's commentary: "Titus Andronicus is regarded by many critics as Shakespeare's worst play." It's almost never produced: In 20 years of theater reviewing, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival (CSF) has given me my first chance to see it. The play is held in such low regard that most people only know it in the form of its parody in The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged) with a chef spurting blood; its 1999 cinematic treatment (even with Anthony Hopkins in the title role) fared no better the 1594 tragedy in the estimation of critics.

Perhaps we should forgive Shakespeare: It's a very early play, a kind of Elizabethan slasher film. Just as gory cinematic horror flicks remain popular today, in Shakespeare's day many theaters stayed afloat on income from horrific, melodramatic "revenge plays."

CSF's production of Titus is offered with a lot of tongue in cheek. Oh, sorry, that's a horrid image, given some of the misdeeds in this tale: Titus's sweet daughter Lavinia (Hayley Clark) has her tongue cut out and her hands lopped off after she's raped by the Queen of the Goths' feral sons (played with gusto by CSF veterans Chris Guthrie and Giles Davies, clad in modern-day Goth attire). Aside from their sadistic predispositions, of course, their act is justified because Titus (Jeff Sanders) has sacrificed their brother after a victory by the Roman army, despite heartfelt pleas by Queen Tamora (Elizabeth A. Harris). She's aided and abetted by Aaron (Reggie Willis), a kind of Iago-in-training, an evildoer who finds ways to crank up bad acts to even more horrifying levels.

If all this sounds confusing, well it is. (Professor Harrison did suggest that it's "Shakespeare's worst play.") CSF director Brian Isaac Phillips hasn't tried to turn it into a serious tragedy, nor has he pushed it to a flat-out satire: He rather lets Titus be what it is, an uneven play with opportunities for black humor, heartfelt grief, profound fear, occasional poetry, ludicrous overacting and unrestrained bloodshed. Audiences 400 years ago loved that sort of thing, just like they flock to Saw II today. It's not really my cup of tea, I won't suggest that CSF should have treated Titus more seriously. Phillips and his bloodied cast are doing exactly what the text calls for, although I would remark on several anachronisms -- including a severed hand in a sandwich bag.

It's only natural that this production careens from tragedy to humor (the maimed Lavinia turns and waves a wan good-bye to her brother with one of her stumps; the emperor plucks a hair from the pie he's eating, made from Tamora's murdered sons) paying no heed to our modern notions of what's "appropriate" onstage. But it's fascinating to see this example of a popular play from the 1590s. CSF offers it in a creepy Halloween spirit, so that's what you should expect.

Titus Andronicus features an array of noteworthy performances, led by Sanders in the title role. He has the stately gait of an elderly leader, and his portrait of the loyal general evokes the simple dignity (and tragic misjudgment) that Shakespeare would evoke more satisfactorily in King Lear. Clark' maimed Lavinia tips a bit too far toward comic melodrama, but she has a kind of twisted charm. Davies and Guthrie keep up the heavy breathing, preening and animal-like sniffing longer than I needed, but if you're into this kind of push-it-over-the-top performance, you'll love the way they give you the creeps. Jim Stump as Titus's brother Marcus, a tribune, is the only rational man amid a "wilderness of tigers," and even he's caught up in the swirling revenge. Matt Johnson resorts to his predictable mugging as the self-centered, impetuous young emperor. As the pieces villains neither Harris in black leather nor Willis in an open-mesh overcoat are quite menacing enough.

If you like theater that makes your heart race, this one's for you. Grade: B

TITUS ANDRONICUS, presented by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, continues through Nov. 13.