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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be concerned that school trip arranged for 12 year olds to see Titus Andronicus at Globe?

69 replies

technomedics · 23/06/2014 22:38

my year 7 child (12) has a school trip planned for next week going to the globe in London. i have researched the play they are planning to see and i am really quite concerned about its content and the appropriateness for 11-13 year olds.
"...14 deaths, brutal rape scenes, mutilation and cannibalism.." apparently acording to both the box office and a recent guardian review
"..Members of the audience have been fainting during the play’s most violent scenes, with others reporting feeling sick and warning of sleepless nights..." the box office says the theatre has laid on 5 trained 'paramedic type' helpers to assist with those who don't cope well with the level of gore on stage.... i am somewhat concerned that the classes have had no preparation for this production and can't see why this play has been chosen for pre teen viewing!!

has anyone been is it hype? from what i remember it is pretty blood thirsty. is there anywhere that plays have any age guidance?

OP posts:
CinderellaRockefeller · 24/06/2014 11:39

Even if the play is pantomime violence rather than brutal, the themes are totally inappropriate. Rape and mutilation as revenge paticularly, that's not really something a 12 year old needs to see in full graphic detail. The particular line that always turns my stomach is the one where one of the rapists laughs at Lavinia (as she's crawling around raped and bleeding with her hands and tongue cut out) she should hang herself, but she couldn't make the rope now she has no hands. It's gratuitously brutal. She begs the queen not to let them rape her either. How people can think that's something a 12 year old should be exposed to is beyond me.

Titus has a point of the futility and spiralling cycle of revenge, but there are other ways to get that across to a 12 year old.

Voodoobooboo · 24/06/2014 11:50

I saw TA at Stratford some years ago. It is a bit gory / violent, but within context. I've also been to The Globe and they are v hot on historical accuracy of presentation (think 16th century FX) so I suspect 12 year olds would be fine given the content of films like Star Wars, Hobbit, X Men, etc.

I think the bigger issue is that TA is one of Shakespeares most difficult plays, is bloody near impossible to follow and goes on for, roughly, 3 days. For that reason, I would say the school are bonkers.

Idontseeanyicegiants · 24/06/2014 12:01

God no YANBU!
I'm all for children studying Shakespeare but this seems a step too far, especially if they have no foreknowledge of the play.
DS studied Macbeth in year 5, they watched the Patrick Stewart version which was a bit near the knuckle violence wise but this is on another level!

BrokenButNotFinished · 24/06/2014 12:02

I covered this in a Shakespeare unit at university (BA English Lang & Lit), but have never actually seen it on stage. I don't think it has been staged that often, compared to some others. My tutor at the time, though, said that when it was done at the National, the St John's Ambulance had to take people out who had fainted - so I don't think it is just to do with standing in the heat. I don't think anyone has mentioned the heads in the pie - which is served to the mother of the people to whom the heads were previously attached. Is someone also toasted on a grill? Or I may be confusing that with another revenge play...

I think it's probably a bad idea, primarily because they haven't studied it and can't therefore contextualise what they're seeing and discuss how that might affect the audience. And debrief afterwards. And it's not a particularly good play: it's important, I think, primarily as a signpost in the development of his style.

The only reason I can think of for going to see it at this age is because, as an early play, the characterisation has more in common with Jacobean tragedy than his later plays - and is therefore more two-dimensional (in my opinion). It's less emotionally involving. One might develop a more intense relationship with the Macbeths, for instance, or the characters in Lear ("Out, vile jelly!" as the eye pops...) than with anyone in this play.

I don't believe in age restrictions on the Arts because (from my own experience) I think people take from things what they are emotionally capable of drawing. That said, I would not take my children at that age to see this as a first choice - and if, by some bizarre twist, it was compulsory, I would sit down with them first, with the text and talk it through. And then see it with them.

Funny thing. Twenty years ago I would have rushed to see this. These days I've learned to love the comedies...

Dovahkiin · 24/06/2014 12:12

As a teacher, I wouldn't dream of taking Year 7s to this! Sounds like a distinct lack of research by the head of department. I remember seeing a gangland version of Macbeth back in Year 9 - people being attacked with Stanley knives etc. Not good.

JourneyToThePlacentaOfTheEarth · 24/06/2014 12:15

my colleague went to see TA recently. He said 5 blokes fainted. He said it was gruesome and scary. His description of what he saw put me off buying a ticket for myself and dh. But there is absolutely no way that 12 year old children should be watching it. Op other parents may not know as much as you on this subject and its great that you're looking out for all the kids, not just your own so thank you

diddl · 24/06/2014 12:22

"Out, vile jelly" in KL is too much enough for me!

StillNotFound · 24/06/2014 12:47

No way would I let my 12 year old see it. I've seen it as an adult, and as others have said, the rape and torture scene is disturbing and distressing.

technomedics · 24/06/2014 15:57

The trip has been rescheduled. Phew!! Parent power yey x thank you all your responses were fantastic, they are now going to see 'A comedy of Errors' next term a suggestion I took forward from this discussion. Thank you sense has prevailed :)

OP posts:
jay55 · 24/06/2014 15:59

Wonderful news, that will be far easier for them to enjoy.

Perspective21 · 24/06/2014 16:23

Just RTFT so pleased for a positive outcome but seriously worried about the expertise of the teacher who booked that!!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 24/06/2014 16:35

I love Titus Andronicus, and I've seen it a couple of times (including a truly shit performance at the Globe, I'm afraid - not for the violence, it was just bad).

I've used trigger warnings when teaching it to twenty year olds and had a student come up to tell me afterwards she was glad of the warning and had found it upsetting. I can believe a class of children might be semi ok with it, but if it's any good, it'll stay with them and that's what would worry me. It is a really, really, really, dark story. I mean, it's horrible. And at some point, it is going to dawn on some of the kids in that class that they were laughing (because people will probably laugh, as it's OTT gore) at someone being raped and mutilated.

Sorry to get all feministy about it, but honestly, I think the school is bonkers.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 24/06/2014 16:37

(Sorry, I am a bad bad person and posted that in exasperation without RTFT. I am glad they're taking them to CoE instead)

KinkyDorito · 24/06/2014 17:37

You have done that teacher a great service.

I wouldn't have wanted the fall-out from that one... Grin

technomedics · 24/06/2014 17:54

i am glad the trip has been rescheduled and a more suitable play will now be seen. i am still quite concerned that Titus Andronicus was even considered for their viewing. i feel somewhat let down tbh. SURELY the school/teacher should have realised this grisly play was not appropriate? i feel my trust has been tested here. i have learned that i can not trust that the school will have my son's best interests at heart and it saddens me. but thankfully no harm has been done (on this occassion) and a fab educational trip should now be on the cards. A Comedy of Errors will be much easier for them to understand and enjoy.

i will be contacting the head as i think this was a car crash waiting to happen and narrowly averted!!

OP posts:
LRDtheFeministDragon · 24/06/2014 18:26

Well, it also kinda sounds as if she's not a very good drama teacher, doesn't it?!

RuddyDuck · 24/06/2014 19:57

glad its now sorted.

I've not seen TA so can't comment on how gory it is, but am wondering about the fainting. I go to The Globe every year and at EVERY priduction at least one person has fainted. I've been near people who have fainted during Midsummer Nights Dream, The Tempest, Merchant of Venice etc etc.

The Globe is stifling and airless, and that's why people faint.

Mind you, sounds like the content of TA doesn't help.

BrokenButNotFinished · 24/06/2014 22:37

Glad it's sorted.

I've been thinking about this today and remembered that at university we counted up how many hands come adrift throughout the play. Don't recollect the total, but they must have been all over the stage.

God, we were a sensitive lot.

Bettercallsaul1 · 24/06/2014 23:46

I'm glad the trip has been rescheduled, OP -TA is a horrible play and I speak as a Shakespeare lover. Why anyone would want to watch it is beyond me - let alone impressionable school children.

This play is enough to put anyone off Shakespeare. It is completely lacking in the elements which make the best plays so wonderful - psychologically convincing and nuanced characters, action that flows logically from character, and a coherent moral vision. It is nasty, brutish but alas, not short.

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