For Shakespeare-lovers the chance to see a work by the Bard that you have never seen – and are unlikely to have even read – is rare. So National Theatre Live’s decision to produce Timon of Athens promised to be a treat.
National Theatre Live is a fabulous initiative. Ordinary films of plays rarely work, failing to either capture the tangibility of live theatre or take advantage of the closeness a camera can give us. Even the greatest performances tend to come out flat. There are of course great cinematic Shakepeares but, until now, nothing that gives the sense of live theatre.
National Theatre Live is different. It creates a filmed live performance with all the tension of a real theatre but the camera work gets in close and varies the angles, subtly providing the range and tension a cinema audience expects.
Timon of Athens had a regular theatre season in London but the high definition film was also broadcast via satellite to over 500 cinemas around the world, live in the UK and Europe and time-delayed to countries further afield including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, India, Scandinavia and Europe. For those who missed the event, the film is now getting a general distribution.
Timon of Athens is a satirical fable, likely co-authored by the lesser-known Elizabethan playwright Thomas Middleton. It is the story of an affluent man of apparently extraordinary generosity who gives away a fortune, believing that the fawning he receives in return constitutes friendship. When he runs out of money his fair-weather friends duck for cover and he declines to a pitiful figure, still clinging to his illusions.
Of course, there is a reason why this is a little-known play. The narrative structure is frankly odd and, although the play begins promisingly, the jarring disjunction between different parts of the play means you don’t need to be a textual expert to get the sense two different playwrights were at work here.
But director Nicholas Hytner has worked wonders with this difficult script. He places his Timon in contemporary London, distributing his wealth for his name in lights on a gallery room or to win the love of his corporate peers. The set and public scenes evoke the Occupy Movement and the later Timon is a convincing evocation of a homeless man. The fit is perfect and the play feels startlingly contemporary.
Simon Russell Beale in the title role gives a magnificent performance. At its best, Beale’s Timon is almost like a great Lear, deep in its pathos though without the best of Shakespeare’s language or the sense of intervening fate. Beale is a wonderful actor and the production would be worth seeing simply for his tour de force.
But the ensemble and production team have done such a great job that we don’t have to rely entirely on Beale to carry the work. The minor roles, though not generously written, are carved out distinctively with a modern twist – including the use of women in what would traditionally have been male parts. Hilton McRae stands out as the philosopher Apemantus delivered with great dignity and beautiful voice work. Deborah Findlay plays the steward as a careworn mother hen – an original and surprising interpretation which works well in the first half but falters against the structural difficulties of the latter part of the play.
The camera work is the silent hero of the film version – neither obtrusive nor lazy but making it clear that this is a very special artistic endeavour. Several audience members applauded. It felt like we had seen a play.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Timon of Athens
By William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton
Produced by National Theatre Live and distributed by Sharmill Films
Screening Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 November
Various cinemas, nationally
