Word: timoner
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...production of Timon of Athens at the Agassiz Theater probably caused some lifted eyebrows. This least known of all Shakesperean plays is an unfinished text that is speculated to have been born out of a collaboration between Shakespeare and renaissance playwright Thomas Middleton. Of all Shakesperean plays, Timon of Athens needs a strong directorial hand to adapt it for the stage. Chronologically, the play occupies the uncomfortable spot between King Lear and Macbeth and can be easily dismissed as the awkward transition in-between...
...plot begins when Timon, a wealthy Athenian merchant, spreads his seemingly limitless riches among his friends and lavishes penniless Athenian artists with his patronage. He has no ulterior motive: he is simply a kind and generous soul who lives, unconsciously, far beyond his considerable means. His life becomes full of complication once the steward Flavius reveals that Timon's estate is mortgaged to the hilt. As the news leaks out, creditors begin to hound the generous merchant. Timon is forced to appeal to his friends, who, predictably, refuse...
...Dissapointed in the human race, Timon invites all his friends to one last feast. At the feast he blames them for their ingratitude, after which he leaves Athens, cursing the city and everyone in it. Timon finds a cave in the woods and is determined to live on roots, but all he finds upon digging is gold...
...former associates visit him, some to deplore his condition, others to exploit him for gold or to ask for his help. Timon sends them all away and refuses to defend Athens against invasion. Alcibiades is Timon's only faithful friend, and in return Timon gives him gold. As the city falls, Timon dies in the woods, but the memory of his former self prompts the conqueror to spare Athens and reestablish peace...
...more so than either Lear or Macbeth, and it presents several complications. The immediate problem is the absence of a working text. The Shakesperean original, involving an anti-climactic number of secondary characters wondering in and out of the stage and one too many perorations from the newly misanthropic Timon, is clearly unsuitable for a student production. To this problem, director Matt Hudson found the simplest solution: he cut. The cast was reduced to about half its prescribed size, Timon's speeches were shortened or eliminated and the verbal exchanges between characters were reduced to the bare minimum. This aides...