About

Titus Andronicus …and Zombies! is an original adaptation of Titus Andronicus created by Cary Sasso. Created by reshaping, tweaking, rewriting and adding to the original text, the piece is set 150 years post a devastating Zombie apocalypse. Only two encampments of survivors remain: Rome, located in what was formerly Taste of Rome Italian Restaurant, and Goth, located in what was formerly a Hot Topic. When Titus Andronicus, a matriarch who built the Andronicus family out of orphans of war, becomes infected with the zombie fungus dubbed the Rot, she sets off a series of atrocities which escalate in intensity over the course of the nine months the disease takes to consume her brain, culminating in the infamous cannibalistic banquet with an Italian twist.

The piece pulls from the campy horror comedy aesthetics of cult classic movies like The Evil Dead and metal bands like Slipknot, asking questions such as what place does a text like Titus Andronicus have in modern theatrical spaces, how do we reconcile the (often uncomfortably close) connection between violence and humor, and what ethical responsibilities do we have when watching hyper-violent theater? In addition, the piece grapples with how to handle a problematic source text, including changes such as reimagining Titus Andronicus as a matriarch, reframing Lavinia as a ruthless lesbian war general, excising the rape from the text entirely, and highlighting Aaron as an antihero instead of a villain.

This piece was likewise the subject of my Stanford University Honors Thesis, “Blood, Guts, Gore, and Ethics: Titus Andronicus as the Model for the Safe Campy Horror Comedy,” in which I propose an intimacy-choreography-inspired methodology for achieving the demanding aesthetics of the campy horror comedy while foregrounding the safety and wellbeing of the actor.