Rome is in turmoil. With the Emperor dead, his two sons, Saturninus and Bassianus, quarrel over who should succeed him; but neither are as popular as the general Titus Andronicus, returned to Rome victorious after a ten-year campaign, with Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her three sons as his prisoners.

'This is tragedy naked, godless and unredeemed' Kenneth Tynan

An embittered Roman general returns from war, having captured the Queen of the Goths and her three sons. Sacrificing the eldest in memory of his own sons killed in battle, he provokes the queen's unending hatred. And when she gains power by her marriage to the new emperor of Rome, she quickly begins to plot a murderous revenge of barely conceivable cruelty, in Shakespeare's first and most savagely bloody tragedy.

Used and Recommended by the National Theatre

General Editor Stanley Wells
Edited by Sonia Massai
Introduction by Jacques Berthoud