In 1970, Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt adapted the play into a German language comedy entitled (Titus Andronicus: Comedy After Shakespeare). Of the adaptation he wrote "it represents an attempt to render Shakespeare's early chaotic work fit for the German stage without having the Shakespearean atrocities and grotesqueries passed over in silence." Working from a translation of the First Folio text by Wolf Graf von Baudissin, Dürrenmatt altered much of the dialogue and changed elements of the plot; the fly killing scene (3.2) and the interrogation of Aaron (5.1) were removed; Titus has Aaron cut off his hand, and after he realises he has been tricked, Marcus brings Lavinia to him rather than the other way around as in the original play. Another major change is that after Aaron is presented with his love child, he flees Rome immediately, and successfully, and is never heard from again. Dürrenmatt also added a new scene, where Lucius arrives at the Goth camp and persuades their leader, Alarich, to help him. At the end of the play, after Lucius has stabbed Saturninus, but before he has given his final speech, Alarich betrays him, kills him, and orders his army to destroy Rome and kill everyone in it.All information taken from Lukas Erne, "Lamentable tragedy or black comedy?: Frederick Dürrenmatt's adaptation of Titus Andronicus", in Sonia Massai (editor), World Wide Shakespeare: Local Appropriations in Film and Performance (New York: Routledge, 2005), 88–94.
In 1970, Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt adapted the play into a German language comedy entitled (Titus Andronicus: Comedy After Shakespeare). Of the adaptation he wrote "it represents an attempt to render Shakespeare's early chaotic work fit for the German stage without having the Shakespearean atrocities and grotesqueries passed over in silence." Working from a translation of the First Folio text by Wolf Graf von Baudissin, Dürrenmatt altered much of the dialogue and changed elements of the plot; the fly killing scene (3.2) and the interrogation of Aaron (5.1) were removed; Titus has Aaron cut off his hand, and after he realises he has been tricked, Marcus brings Lavinia to him rather than the other way around as in the original play. Another major change is that after Aaron is presented with his love child, he flees Rome immediately, and successfully, and is never heard from again. Dürrenmatt also added a new scene, where Lucius arrives at the Goth camp and persuades their leader, Alarich, to help him. At the end of the play, after Lucius has stabbed Saturninus, but before he has given his final speech, Alarich betrays him, kills him, and orders his army to destroy Rome and kill everyone in it.All information taken from Lukas Erne, "Lamentable tragedy or black comedy?: Frederick Dürrenmatt's adaptation of Titus Andronicus", in Sonia Massai (editor), World Wide Shakespeare: Local Appropriations in Film and Performance (New York: Routledge, 2005), 88–94.