Going down as Shakespeare’s most violent play, Titus Andronicus racks up a higher body count than any other in the Bard’s catalogue. That’s a grand total of 14 on-stage (human) deaths, not counting those slain in battle before the show even begins (and also, a single fly). However, as one ill-fated woman must discover, murder is far from the most barbaric act of violence one might face.

A bloody tale of tit-for-tat vengeance and sacrifice, the play is thought to be Shakespeare’s earliest work of tragedy, and his first foray into epic Roman tales. While it has fallen in and out of favour over the years (the sensibilities of the Victorian era found the all blood and gore to be a bit too much) the Elizabethan audiences who saw its debut surely wouldn’t have been too discouraged by the graphic violence (seeing as they also relished a public execution).

So, what can today’s audiences take away from Titus Andronicus? If this surreal staging  presented by Th’Unguarded Duncan and Theatre Works has one thing to teach us, it’s this: stories of bloody revenge will never go out of...