Timon of Athens Pummels King Lear in Battle of Translated Shakespeare Productions

Timon of Athens
By William Shakespeare
Translation by Kenneth Cavander
Directed by Andy Wolk
Starring Anthony Cochrane
Play On! Festival
Classic Stage Company, Manhattan
June 22, 2019

King Lear
By William Shakespeare
Translation by Marcus Gardley
Directed by Ian Belknap
Starring John Glover
Play On! Festival
Classic Stage Company, Manhattan
June 22, 2019

On a recent Saturday in the Village, I saw another installment of the Play On! Festival, which is now midway in presenting dramatized readings of all the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Each play has been “translated” by a writer, dramaturge or actor, trying to keep as much of the original text as possible. These are not modern updates, but translations, eliminating not just thee’s and thou’s, but also the cryptic allusions or topical references lost on modern audiences. To author Kenneth Cavender, who translated Timon, “I don’t think Shakespeare needs to be translated in a word-for-word rendering — but as a transcription, the way a composer takes the work of another composer and transcribes it for piano.” These performances of Timon of Athens and King Lear, each written in about 1605-7 demonstrated the importance of the translation quality and of effective direction. Both deal with the foibles and punishment of old men who make bad judgments, so their pairing on the same day was fortuitous. Sadly, the more famous play came off far the worse.

Timon of Athens deals with a profligate noble of Athens who generously gives away all of his money to his friends—mostly in gifts and lavish parties. When he runs out of money, the debt collectors arrive and he is run out of town to wander in the wilderness (echoes of Lear), then dies embittered at the ingratitude of others. In a nice contrasting counterpoint-subplot, the senate of Athens ruthlessly expels a general (Alcibiades) for defending the actions of one of his condemned soldiers. He then reconquers Athens, punishing these senators for their lack of generosity and good judgement. So the overall theme seems to be that either extreme beneficence or its lack are both ill-advised (moderation in all things, to quote another ancient Greek). The play mostly lacks grand soliloquies and is missing much of Shakespeare’s best poetry. It was a collaboration with another playwright Thomas Middleton, known for his ribald and rough dialogue. This is a bit jarring, and Middleton’s scenes appear intermittently, as the characters hurl slurs and insults back and forth. These, and the play itself were all crystal clear given the excellent translation by Mr. Cavander, who worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the past, and was the very first writer engaged to do a translation for this project.



This translation was performed in a staged production at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2014, so several actors had familiarity with it--this was noticeable. The version seen here was staged, with actors reading from scripts as they moved about the hall. This was done well, with the exception of one pause as an actor had to retrieve a missing bit of script. The cast seemed well prepared and comfortable with their words, impressive given the very limited rehearsal time available for these readings. Standouts were the eloquent Timon of veteran performer Anthony Cochrane (above), polished from having done this version in Alabama, and Jeff Bielh as the curmudgeon-philosopher Apamantus, serving rather like the Fool in Lear, poking holes in Timon’s overly earnest and self-pitying pronouncements. I liked the play and performance very much, despite an oddly ambiguous ending in which the general does or does not predict wholesale carnage after he reconquers Athens.

The great King Lear received a dreary, leaden performance. The translation was by Marcus Gardley, a young playwright associated with the “post black” school of writers who incorporate issues of race and economics into their work. This translation was far less poetic and subtle than others in this series. It was more colloquial, sprinkled with F-bombs and jarring epithets. This would be fine, but not if it interrupts Shakespearean cadence and distracts from the flow of words. I rarely got the sense of underlying iambic pentameter here. Perhaps this was particularly noticeable in Lear, which often elevates to a supernatural level less suited to jarring street references. The actors mostly seemed a little uncomfortable with this version.

Unlike the other plays in the series, no effort was made by the director to limit the duration of this King Lear to two hours (it ran about three), so the actors had to manage much more material in limited time than for the other plays in the series. Given this, I think it was ill-advised for the director to try a real staging—limited gestures behind stands may have been better. The staged action was often clumsy, with parts of the script scattered on the ground, passed from hand to hand, and seeming generally cumbersome. The actors seemed far less familiar with their roles than in Timon and the Henry VI plays, stumbling over lines more often. Least effective was a pallid, somewhat simpering lead. John Glover, a veteran of stage and screen (Lionel Luther in Smallville), never projected a convincing interpretation of this towering part, and mostly bored me. The others were generally competent, but mostly performed below the level of their work in the Henry VI plays. The single standout was the Edmund of Tramell Tillman (above), brooding, menacing, and the actor best in-tune with the translation. After seeing an unsuccessful Broadway King Lear with Glenda Jackson (which failed for other reasons), I see how sensitive this long and great play is to performance and direction. Sadly, both failed in this attempt.