Timon of Athens

Synopsis

A notable Athenian falls prey to false friends and parasites because of his own beauty - now his money is almost gone. Spurning his false friends he hides in the woods outside the city where he finds gold, some of which he shares with Alcibiadies, himself unjustly banished, and his loyal servant. Eventually he dies and hearing of it Alcibiadies decides to revenge his death on the city.

Our Review:

7 August 2008

The director and designer of this rare revival of one of Shakespeare’s least loved plays, Lucy Bailey and William Dudley, see the piece as a 17th century precursor of Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds. So, a huge black netting covers the Globe arena and black-garbed actors hover like vultures waiting for carrion; was that film sub-titled “Carrion Spending”?

For Timon is a moody philanthropist who gives it all away and then finds himself on a friendless dung heap when the money runs out. Talk about the financial squeeze or the credit crunch: this is the ultimate parable of the price of overspending in a world populated by sycophants and flatterers whose friendship is based solely on material benefits. You can see why Karl Marx so enjoyed the speeches about fool’s gold in Act Four.

The physical concept proves a decorative handicap, for the dynamic comes elsewhere, in the efforts of Timon to define himself as a man in the shadow of cruel cynicism peddled by the phil...

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Latest User Review

DGR - 27 August 2008:

The cast and director give it everything they have, but it's ultimately a play of 2 halves: all action in the first half and all stillness in the second. Whilst enjoyable, the audience gets very restive as it progresses; Bailey / Dudley's extravagant vision does enliven things, but also means that much of the first act poetry is lost in the visual clutter. But then again Timon needs something to enliven it......

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