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This week’s podcast concludes our discussion of Timon of Athens with a production concept and dream cast, as well as a wrap-up of the play.
Continue reading “Podcast 142: Timon of Athens — concept, cast, and conclusions”
OK, so. Timon of Athens. Kinda ambivalent about this bad boy.
Continue reading “Timon of Athens: a not-quite misanthropic wrap-up”
Timon of Athens
So here’s the numerical breakdown…
Using Professor Rodes’ midpoint theory, let’s take a look at Timon of Athens.
There are 2308 lines in in the play, which means the midpoint is at line 1154, or at Act Three, Scene Five, line 45. According to Dr. Rodes’ theory, you could find at this midpoint–or within twenty lines either way–a speech that perfectly sums up a major theme of the play (the 20-line leeway was to help remove the differences in prose line lengths between individual editions).
As long-time readers of the blog can attest, I love to take a day toward the end of our time with a play to look at some interesting things in the scansion–places where an interruption or pause is called for, or maybe where the iambic pentameter goes so awry that the verse just screams to be looked at and reacted to. But to be perfectly honest, I think I’ve been getting into a bit of a rut. So we’re going to switch things up a little here with Timon of Athens.
I want to look at moments when the scansion disappears altogether, those moments when a speech moves from prose to verse and/or vice/versa. Note, I say speech and not scene. Those instances are common. Mid-speech changes are much fewer.
Continue reading “Timon of Athens — a lil’ diff’rent scansion”
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This week’s podcast continues our discussion of Timon of Athens with a look at videos (Timon and the BBC’s The Hollow Crown), as well as a money-mouthing discussion of wealth in the play.
Continue reading “Podcast 141: Timon of Athens — Video(s) and Money”
Throughout the project, I’ve always searched in the dialogue for hidden stage direction (explicit ones which are usually few and far between…I say usually because as we get nearer the end of his career, I’m finding more explicit directions). Timon of Athens is no different.
But in this case, for me, it was like digging for roots and finding…not gold.
Continue reading “Timon of Athens: stage direction in the dialogue”
Last week, I took a look at some of the ‘graces’ in Timon of Athens—Apemantus’ before the first feast, and Timon’s before the second and final feast. Today, let’s look a (sort of) third.
In Act Four, Scene Three, Timon has left Athens and is now in full Misantropos mode. And at the beginning of the scene, he has another long soliloquy; this one at 48 lines, is longer than his Act Four, Scene One, full-scene torrent.
Continue reading “Timon of Athens — Speech Study: Timon’s eureka moment”
The title of this entry sounds like some kind of bizarre Dow Jones/NASDAQ average, doesn’t it? But no, we’re not going to Wall Street. We’re still in (ancient?) Greece and Timon of Athens.
No, what I’m referring to is the interplay between Timon and Apemantus in Act Four, Scene Three…
Continue reading “Timon of Athens: The Misanthrope/Cynic Exchange”
Act Four, Scene One of Timon of Athens is one of those strange scenes, one where there is but one character on stage, delivering but a single speech.
Timon has just booted his guests from his home in Act Three, Scene Six, and then fled Athens himself. And just fourteen lines later, we find Timon now outside the walls of his city. And he releases a forty-one line torrent of rage, a prayer of misanthropy:
