Staging Timon of Athens in the Downturn

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges of localizing Shakespeare though theatrical adaptation, and considers some of the problems of “presentist” approaches to the early-modern text. It analyses the production of Timon of Athens at the Royal National Theatre, London in 2012, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Simon Russell Beale. This was a defiantly topical and localized interpretation of the play that made reference to the current economic downturn in the U.K and Europe, and the recent protests in the City of London by the Occupy movement. The paper discusses how significantly the text was revised and adapted to fit these topical British concerns about London, politics and the finance sector, and assesses how successfully these changes were developed in performance. The paper also considers in what other ways Shakespeare and Middleton’s text has been received in recent literary criticism of the play in order to better understand how the drama has been interpreted as a commentary on the present economic situation. In particular, the theme of linguistic and symbolic breakdown in the drama can be related to contemporary arguments in political philosophy, such as by Slavoj Žižek, regarding language, authority and the social order. The paper also speculates on how the drama lends itself to ideas of politics, and in what ways the London production illustrated some limitations of the presentist approach. The paper finally speculates on the ramifications of contemporary Shakespeare reception in local and global contexts.