Thursday, 20 September 2012

A Play of Two Halves

How good is the first half of Timon of Athens?  Answer: Really good. It's not like any other Shakespeare I've seen: often when you see Shakespeare in a contemporary setting it still feels very Elizabethan; this didn't, this felt like a contemporary play that the author had decided to put into blank verse. Great story, great characters, great acting - by the time the interval I couldn't understand why it's not really put on.

How bad is the second half of Timon of Athens? Answer: Pretty bad. Plot is dispensed with in favour of a series of the free-form jazz ramblings of an ADHD child. Nothing seemed in anyway credible - in a contemporary setting or anywhere.  By the time the end (if you can call it that) came round my eyes were sagging and I'd stopped caring.

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