Titus

Roman General Titus Andronicus has returned from defeating the Goths in a bloody battle, but the victory has left him with mixed feelings. Titus is reminded by his first-born son Lucius that their faith demands the sacrifice of an enemy prisoner as a gift to the gods for their victory. Titus chooses the eldest son of Tamora, the Queen of the Goths, who has since been taken hostage by Titus's troops. Tamora pleads for her son's life, but Titus goes ahead with the sacrifice. She then becomes the lover of the new emperor of Rome, Saturninus, a weak-willed and corrupt man. Tamora uses her connection to the throne for her own ends: in retaliation for the death of her son, Tamora and her surviving sons, Chiron and Demetrius, arrange the death of Titus's beloved daughter, Lavinia. This act sets in motion an ever-tightening spiral of revenge and retaliation that leaves few of the participants unscathed. (Mark Deming)