Shakespeare's Timon of Athens partly seems to be written by someone else, as it's both tragic and garishly comical, and brilliantly and really badly written. Yet, this is the third Stratford production of Timon that has made it look like a minor masterpiece. Michael Langham's landmark reworking of this messy play in 1963 with Duke Ellington at Stratford to create its score, and in 1991, again directed by Langham, gave variety to Shakespeare's tedious repetitions. In this revival, director Stephen Ouimette tones down that showy stage brilliance with more naturalistic acting. His starkly theatrical staging achieves vivid effects but does not to call attention to his inventiveness. And, though he also uses modern dress, the music does not emphasize modernity the way Ellington's great score did.
The play may be a talky story, but this version is riveting. Its large cast is uniformly grabbing. Sean Arbuckle's powerful Alcibiades grows from impressive soldier to a menacing, wronged threat to Athens' corrupt leaders. Tom McCamus gives the cynical railer Apemantus more sympathetic humanity than usual. And Bernard Hopkins as Flavius, Timon's ever-faithful steward, takes us into his thoughts and feelings so completely that he almost takes over the play.
Peter Donaldson's Timon is sincerely in love with his own generosity but allows us to see the egocentricity of his giving while not accepting recompense. When he is betrayed by his ungrateful beneficiaries, his disappointment and wrath, though sympathetic, are excessive enough to lead logically to overwrought hatred of mankind. If not noble, his bitter hermit is titanic.
