Titus Andronicus is probably Shakespeare's first tragedy. Set in approximately the 4th century AD, the macabre plot concerns human sacrifice, torture, rape, mutilation,decapitation, cannibalism and murder. The fashionable theme of revenge is played out against the decadence of Imperial Rome in its decline with much violence and melodrama. Enormously popular with Elizabethan audiences, the play has languished since the reign of James I, but recent productions have commanded recognition of its merits. Conceived on a grand scale,Titus Andronicus has the seeds of greatness and presages the supreme tragedies of Shakespeare's maturity.

Tints Andronicus was long suspected of being a play of composite authorship, but scholars now generally concede that it is one of Shakespeare"s earliest works, and probably his first tragedy. It seems to have been written circa 1589 and appeared in the Quarto of 1594 and the First Folio of 1623. Enormously popular with Elizabethan audiences,it has been disregarded since the time of James I, but interest in the play has recently revived and has commanded recognition of its qualities.

The story of Titus Andronicus is not related to any known events in Roman history, but derives from a variety of classical sources, the chief of these being Seneca"s Thyestes and Ovid"s Procne and Philomela. Set approximately in the 4th century AD, its broad political theme illuminates the destructive repercussions of civil war. The macabre plot concerns the revenge of Roman conqueror Titus Andronicus on Tamora,Queen of the Goths, for the atrocities she commits against his family.The fashionable theme of revenge is played out with much violence and melodrama against the decadence of Imperial Rome in its decline……