Globe Education Online

Titus [Douglas Hodge], Chiron [Richard Riddell] and Lavinia [Laura Rees]. Photo: John Tramper

 Returning to Rome from a war against the Goths, the general Titus Andronicus brings with him the queen Tamora and her three sons as prisoners of war. Titus' sacrifice of Tamora's eldest son to appease the ghosts of his 21 dead sons, and his decision to refuse to accept the title of emperor, initiates a terrible cycle of mutilation, rape and murder, At the centre of the nightmare moves the self-delighting Aaron.

Spectacularly, even grotesquely violent and daringly experimental, Titus was thesmash hit of Shakepeare's early career, and is written with a ghoulish energy he was never to repeat elsewhere.

Titus Andronicus was performed in 2006, as part of the Edges of Rome Season.