Festival veteran shines in ever-topical play
It’s become customary to set this lesser-known Shakespeare play in the present, and in Stephen Ouimette’s new Stratford production the reasons for this are clear.
The play’s first half is a satire of the culture of privilege, and its second a Beckettian scenario, in which the title character curses and rages in the wilderness, having failed at being wealthy. Karl Marx used a speech from the play to illustrate his argument that money equals power. As long as capitalism continues to dominate world systems, Timon of Athens will always feel topical.
This is Ouimette’s second staging of the play at Stratford; the first, in 2004 (which I did not see), featured Peter Donaldson in the title role and was well-received.
Ouimette and designer Dana Osborne have a gleeful field day depicting super-rich lifestyles in the opening acts. From the Poet’s (Josue Laboucane) trendily mismatched plaid suit to the co-ordinated uniforms and hyper-attentive manner of Timon’s house staff, the detail in design and performance is superb.
Ben Carlson seems rightly out of place as Timon’s cynical philosopher buddy Apemantus, with his rumpled blazer, leather shoulder bag and slightly too-long hair.
Joseph Ziegler brings his characteristic mild-mannered affability to the title role in these early scenes. His Timon comes across as a naturally generous man who loves doing good.
Unusually among Shakespeare’s major characters, Timon has no wife, children or other social ties. It’s not clear where his money comes from — nor does the character have a grasp on its limits. His steward Flavius (Michael Spencer-Davis) tries to warn him that the cupboard is bare but Timon doesn’t want to know. When the penny drops and he asks his friends for help, they all stiff him.
These scenes are played with visual wit: one character is using a virtual reality console and another is interrupted poolside when Timon’s staff come asking for handouts. But this is where the production’s lack of specific location starts to limit its capacity for critique. A Greek flag on the military captain Alcibiades’ (Tim Campbell) uniform would seem to follow the script by placing us in Athens, but nothing else seems to reference the economic and political bas- ket case that is today’s Greece.
Although a generalized, fair point is being made on the sleek nowhereland of globalized privilege, the growing rich-poor divide in today’s Canada and the play’s depiction of ethically challenged Senators (hmmm!) offered ample opportunity for topical comment that is not taken up.
What comes to the fore instead are the play’s parable-like qualities; this is a cautionary tale that becomes a bit predictable as Timon’s false friends are one by one revealed.
The production gains more power in its second half, as Ziegler lets rip with Timon’s legendary rants against those who wronged him and the evil world they created. He brings vocal and physical conviction to this depiction of a man paradoxically finding his personal power through his abjection. The angry-looking sunburn blisters on his shoulders and a filthy tank top and trousers make his debased state visceral.
Carlson, Spencer-Davis and Campbell bring clarity and weight to their important secondary roles, and the ensemble — most doubling and tripling up among the play’s many smaller parts — is strong.
The play features virtually no female roles; Ouimette has attempted some reparation by having women play smaller parts written for men. That only one woman (Jacklyn Francis) is present at Timon’s lavish dinner party makes a critical comment on the continued male dominance of the top echelons of societal power, but having the party then be entertained by sexily clad dancing girls (even if this happens in the original script) layers objectification onto underrepresentation of women in the show.
Despite caveats, this production makes a strong case for the continued relevance of this fascinatingly unstable play, and is an opportunity for festival veteran Ziegler to shine.