ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how references to figures and images from popular culture and Italy’s Imperial and Fascist historical past are used by Julie Taymor to establish the masculine and moral identity of the characters Saturninus and Lucius. It demonstrates how the various references in Titus are fundamentally important to Taymor’s construction of characters’ gender identity, particularly masculinity. Alan Cumming’s portrayal of Saturninus draws upon the film history of grandiose and camp emperors from sword-and-sandal epics, Fascist imagery, and most significantly his previous renowned performance of the Emcee in Sam Mendes’s 1998 stage revival of the musical Cabaret. These references signal that Saturninus is a sinister, corrupt, weak, and effeminate antecedent to Angus MacFayden’s Lucius. Lucius’s portrayal references both the sword-and-sandal and gladiatorial film genres, in an attempt to present him as a hero-like warrior and exemplary manly leader.
