On my second day in Ashland, I saw one of the last two plays of Shakespeare’s canon that I’ve never seen before, Timon of Athens. Not quite knowing what to expect, I was treated to a powerful, entertaining tragedy. [Trailer, Interview] It’s basically a tale of someone dealing with the loss of fair weather friends (with a parallel in the state’s relation to citizens), who starts out overly generous and ends up losing his faith in humanity. The production was innovative and stylized. There was a musical band that was interjected periodically throughout the play with popular and text-relevant music that was very good. The acting, led by Anthony Heald, was great. He was particularly noteworthy as the lead, particularly as he spent most of the second half of the play in his underwear wallowing in garbage that covered the stage, representing his fallen status, household, and mental outlook.
This was allegedly Karl Marx’s favorite play. It deals with the emptiness of money and wealth, and friends who are only friends when Timon’s generosity is benefiting them, but who aren’t there when he needs help. A day after I saw it it’s striking me even stronger than when it finished. Even though it dealt with serious ideas, and it’s a tragedy, there was a lot of comedy (at least on the surface) in the delivery early on. I don’t know what a standard production of this play would be like, but this particular one was striking and powerful. I’m not sure why it’s produced so infrequently. It makes me want to see it again. … and now only one left in the canon.
136