In 2001, Vesturport presented Titus, a raw and uncompromising adaptation of Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeare’s most brutal tragedies, directed by Björn Hlynur Haraldsson.

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The production was conceived as a one-time event and performed only once, in a large warehouse in Reykjavik before an audience of around a thousand people. There would be no second performance. The actors were given a single chance to tell the story, placing the entire work in a state of real-time risk.

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Set within an industrial space, the staging expanded beyond traditional theatre. A live band and a large choir were integral to the performance, creating a dense and overwhelming soundscape that carried the emotional and physical force of the piece. Music, voice, and movement merged into a continuous surge of energy, surrounding both performers and audience.

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At the center stood Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who later revealed that he performed the role in complete blackout. Without visual reference, the performance relied entirely on physical instinct, voice, and spatial awareness, intensifying the sense of exposure and immediacy.

The violence of the text was not presented at a distance but embedded in the body and in the space itself. The combination of live music, choral force, and physical performance turned the narrative into something collective and overwhelming, where the boundaries between performer and audience began to dissolve.

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Rather than presenting Shakespeare as a fixed work, Titus existed as an event, singular, unrepeatable, and dependent on the conditions of that specific moment. Its scale, risk, and intensity established an early vision for Vesturport: theatre as something immediate, physical, and alive.