Timely Timon @nationaltheatre
15/07/2012
Everything about the National Theatre's production of Timon of Athens (pronounced Ti-mon not Tee-mon as the Greeks do) screams of the current global economic crisis. From the camping protesters at the beginning to back drops of the bank-branded Canary Wharf buildings it resonates and the story itself also feels startlingly contemporary.
Timon (Simon Russell Beale) is generous with his friends. He helps them out without a blink, buys them gifts, gives artists patronage and throws lavish dinner parties. He is generous to the point of bankruptcy but when his debtors come calling and he turns to his friends for help the doors are suddenly closed on him. Generosity of wealth is not even matched in spirit.
Without the back drop of our own financial crisis, I am sure the play would feel very different but here Timon's spending beyond his means, ignoring creditors and the ease with which his followers accept his generosity feels far more symbolic.
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