OUT go the togas and sandals. In come the costumes, customs and percussion of the Far East.

Director Paul Toy has decided to relocate Shakespeare's bloody revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus in next week's production by the York Shakespeare Project.

In doing so, he will be making his mark on a Shakespeare play once more, just as he did for the project's second production, when he reversed the gender of the lovers and their servants in The Taming Of The Shrew.

"This time I was having trouble getting a handle on the original setting because I was thinking of all those images of the late-Roman Empire in Caligula and Gladiator. They were fixated on sex and people doing odd things to each other with grapes, and although sex comes into Titus Andronicus, it is not the play's specific theme," says Paul.

To escape the play's "toga and sandal image", the Romans will be Chinese, the Goths will be Mongols. "I've gone with the Far East because here you have another ancient, sophisticated, rather decadent empire menaced by marauding hordes from the north and, like Rome, it's a place with great respect for the dead and the elders," says Paul. "It also has a judicial system strong on execution and mutilation, just like the Romans."

Paul has noted a further similarity that makes the Far East a suitable setting. "In China, there is a tendency to speak in a flowery and poetic way, and there's a strutting quality to Shakespeare's writing too, where he's outstripping all those better educated writers around him," he says. "One of the problems with Titus Andronicus is the contrast between the terrible things people do and the way they are described, which is often high flown with florid images.

"In terms of realism, you are thinking 'Why are you spending 40 lines describing what's just happened; why aren't you sending for an ambulance?', but then you have to set up the convention where these things can exist so that you get beyond the immediate, naturalistic barrier and look for things on a deeper level."

Music will play a significant role in Paul Toy's production, led by principal musician Jude Brereton. "The musicians will be on stage all the time, always visible, doing not only the music but sound effects too," says Paul. "There are a lot of ceremonial and ritualistic actions that punctuate the dialogue and the music is almost exclusively played on percussion because songs would be too humane for this play."

Titus Andronicus will be played by York Shakespeare Project debutant Dave Parkinson, best remembered in York for his performance as Satan in the 1996 Mystery Plays. He will be joined in the cast of 27 by fellow principals Judith Ireland as Tamora, Dermot Hill as Lucius and John Sharpe as Aaron.

"This being York - Persil City - we have not found a black actor to play Aaron, but I deliberately didn't want to have any blacking up, so we've got round it by having Aaron in a black mask and black clothing, but it's only a half-mask so that it's obvious that he's white," says Paul. "The most important thing is that he is an outsider, rather than that he is black."

Titus Andronicus, human flesh pie and all, is Shakespeare's most outwardly brutal play, but Paul believes there is good reason to see it.

"Although the violence is there, the play addresses the futility of violence and, surprisingly, it is much more truthful to life. Unlike Lear, Titus is not redeemed by his suffering but goes on to inflict all the more suffering," he says.

"There are all too many reminders of today, in Rwanda and the Middle East, where you think 'Surely they will learn' but instead they go in and hit even harder and learn nothing, just like in Bosnia.

"So this play is more true to life than to tragedy, and it isn't resolved in the way that might be expected if you use Shakespeare's later tragedies as a yardstick. So in many ways, Titus Andronicus is a young man's tragedy and you can see the roots of three plays, King Lear, Hamlet and Othello, buzzing around here."

Titus Andronicus, York Shakespeare Project's fourth show, will run at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, from April 21 to 24 at 7pm plus 2pm on the last day. Tickets: £9, concessions £7, with a £1 discount for members; available from York Tourist Information Centre, De Grey Rooms, Exhibition Square, tel 01904 621756, or Ticket World, in Patrick Pool, tel 01904 644194.

Updated: 09:01 Friday, April 16, 2004