Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The singular Kathryn Hunter captivates as a re-gendered TIMON OF ATHENS

• By drediman
• January 31, 2020
• No Comments

Kathryn Hunter in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens”, courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center. Photo by Henry Grossman.

Earlier this week, I caught Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience – in a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Washington, DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company – at the Polonsky Shakespeare in Brooklyn. I’ve seen the Bard’s rarely-seen play only one other time back in 2011, in a production starring Richard Thomas at the Public Theater. I was therefore eager to further assess the play about a recklessly generous Athenian who meets a tragic fate at the hands of their so-called friends.

There’s a reason why Timon of Athens is considered in the second tier of the Shakespearian canon (it’s widely thought that the play was co-written by Thomas Middleton). Although there are shades of other of Shakespeare’s more well-known and of-performed works – notably King Lear and Julius Caesar – Timon doesn’t quite delve into the guts of human nature as he does in other works. Nevertheless, the play is especially timely in our post-financial crisis world, and its depiction of the greed an its repercussions is often chilling. I just wish that Simon Godwin’s propulsive and entertaining production (which was previously seen across the pond with a mostly different cast) had cast the irresponsible over-spending of the title character in a more ambiguous light.

Which is not to take away from the captivating central performance of Kathryn Hunter, who reprises her performance as a re-gendered Timon at TFANA. Ms. Hunter is a creature of the theater, and to see her live is to experience a masterclass in the art of stage acting. Indeed, despite her diminutive physique, her physicality and vocal delivery are ideally suited to and beautifully calibrated for live performance. The rest of the cast is comprised of a crop of some very fine New York actors (including the always wonderful Arnie Burton), who easily split their efforts across numerous roles.

RECOMMENDED

TIMON OF ATHENS
Off-Broadway, Play
Theatre for a New Audience
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Through February 9