Taylor Mac’s Absurdist Tragedy Faces Despair with Jokes

by K. Marguerite Caronna

Murder, mayhem, dismemberment, cruelty toward women, all drive Taylor Mac’s answer to Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy.

At Oakland Theater Project, Emilie Whelan directs a fast paced, skillful performance of Mac’s sequel to Shakespeare’s scandalous early tragedy “Titus Andronicus.” With roots in Greek myth, “Titus” has perhaps the highest end-of-play body count ever.

Scenic Designer Carlos Aceves briefly hides the gore with a red curtain drawn across a faux marble stage and runway. Then the curtain opens revealing towering mounds of “corpses”—all gray stuffed dummies. A rollicking spectacle of bodily fluids, penises, farts, and embalming ensues.

The audience is invited to participate.

The display of vengeance, hatred and horrors remind me of the nightly news with its do or die political battles. So, who will clean up the mess? Why, Janice (Matt Standley), a bearded maid in a flouncy dress, and Gary (Jomar Tagatac), a simple Clown yearning to be the Emperor’s “Fool.” Gary wants to speak truth to power—he wants to stop the carnage. But can he?

After the Emperor has laid waste to his followers, the servants must clean up the mess. Isn’t that always the way?

The duo speaks directly to us, delivering Mac’s lively dialogue at breakneck speed. They rant with admirable precision, sometimes rhyming, sometimes blank verse—always with perfect comedic timing. They argue about social class, elite power, and the abuse of women, asserting, “I want to see them dancing in a line… taking over the world.”

But Janice accepts the horrors, finding solace in drudgery, the eternal janitor: “Do you think I was idle at the Ides of March?” Janice knows that today’s Emperor is tomorrow’s gruesome mess, that “Crying is the state of the world.” She knows the horrors: “How can one cope when chaos permeates?”

Clown Gary, chaotic and inventive, claims he’s “an Everyman who’s a bit of a nobody else.” Gary resurrects himself from the grind of street performances where audiences throw “poo” at him.  Always the optimist, Gary foresees a more equitable world free of tragedy.

With his endless charm, Tagatec promotes Gary from Clown to Fool, the court jester who teases out “intelligence” and turns disaster into laughter.

Pitiful and witty Carol (Regina Morones), pops out from the pile of corpses to join them. Her unbearable guilt over failing to save an infant lifts at the prospect of “shopping as activism.”

Carol joins Gary’s coming overthrow of the elites with comedic gusto. Despite the actors’ unflagging energy and skilled delivery, the jokes begin to weigh, becoming predictable. Carol’s incessant howling about “saving the baby,” wears. But wait!

For the final scene, irrepressible, endearing Gary flaunts theatrical tradition in a touching way to put an end to tragedy. How does he do it? Join the clean-up crew at OTP and find out. Go and see how the Fool saves the world.

Enjoy an evening of slapstick laughs. Did I mention a pie in the face? Taylor Mac has given us crude humor with a message of REVOLUTION wrapped inside.

 

“Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus” by Taylor Mac, directed by Emilie Whelan, scenic design by Carlos Aceves, costume design by Marina Polakoff, sound design by Ray Archie.  by Oakland Theater Project. Info: OaklandTheater.org – to October 1, 2023.

Cast: Regina Morones (Carol), Jomar Tagatac (Gary), and Matt Standley (Janice).

Banner photo: Matt Standley & Jomar Tagatac. Photos: Ben Krantz Studio