Tom Savini

Needless to say, I will be putting emphasis on the violent scenes in this play and taking advantage of special effects make-up and the horror effects championed by Tom Savini. Let me take you through a brief tour of the most violent scenes I will be highlighting: First, is the battle between the Spanish and Portuguese and Don Andrea’s death at the hands of Balthazar. These battle scenes will take place through Don Andrea’s memory and the Generals memory, and also flashbacks from Balthazar. There will be a very large white cube placed with its corner facing the audience so that each side of the audience will see the top, but a different side of the cube. When the battle which between the Spanish and Portuguese is retold by the character on stage, say the General, edited moving scenes of battlefield gore will be projected onto each side of the cube. The multiple retellings of the battle between the Spanish and the Portuguese will work to my advantage as I will have ample opportunity to stage horror movie gore.

The next scene that will be emphasized is Horatio’s death at the hands of Lorenzo and Balthazar. In this scene Horatio is hung and stabbed to death in front of Bel-Imperia. Such a scene will include sound effects, and a harness, and special effects.  Blood splattered on the cube, which will be wiped clean during intermission.

This leads us to the penultimate display of violence and gore in this play, Hieronimo’s play within a play. This will be a horrific spectacle of blood. When Heironimo lifts back the curtain to expose his dead son, his decomposing body will make The Walking Dead look like teletubbies. It won’t be the actual actor, due to casting issues, though. 

Either way, all his sympathetic perversity Dexter will have nothing on Hieronimo. 

The play will end with Don Andrea’s account of each the punishment each character receives in hell, as Kyd wrote it. The fact of the matter here is that, after waiting the whole play for his promised revenge, Don Andrea has become as lustfully violent as Hieronimo, damning all the dead to everlasting torment including the somewhat innocent Don Cyprian. Don Cyprian is not featured in this play, alluded to but not made firm by a corporeal symbol as we only have five actors. These scenes will also be projected on the  large white cube, for each punishment three separate scenes. Though these scenes are brief, they will nevertheless be as shocking and as repulsive as Don Andrea (taken by the spirit of revenge) had wished them to be.