Ahead of Australian cinema broadcasts of Titus Andronicus, the RSC’s David Troughton talks body counts and blood bags.

Titus Andronicus is frequently referred to as Shakespeare’s bloodiest play. Now, Australian audiences will get a chance to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s latest attempt to stage this gory revenger’s tragedy when the RSC Live from Stratford-Upon-Avon plays in cinemas across the country.

“The decay of Rome reaches violent depths in Shakespeare’s most bloody play,” reads the company marketing copy. “Titus is a ruler exhausted by war and loss, who relinquishes power but leaves Rome in disorder. Rape, cannibalism and severed body parts fill the moral void at the heart of this corrupt society.”

When the drama begins, the Roman General Titus Andronicus has returned from a drawn out and bloody 10-year war in which he has lost 21 of his sons in battle. With thoughts of retirement and a life with his only daughter Lavinia, a wrong decision on Titus’s part pitches him into the violent series of events as he and Tamora, Queen of the Goths engage in a terrible cycle of revenge and murder.

Stefan Adegbola as Aaron in Titus...