Timon of Athens

Th’Unguarged Duncan’s production of Timon of Athens was developed as part of Prague Shakespeare Company’s 2025 Shakespeare Summer Intensive program. It is highly physical and ensemble based. This was Karl Marx’s favourite Shakespeare, as it examines the value of money and its effect on human relationships in society. The play was co-authored by Thomas Middleton. Other themes explored within this dark satire include use versus service and giving/embracing in opposition with repulsing/rejecting. In this production, the tumultuous world of a commercial restaurant reflects the world of Timon: it is highly charged, it is precipitous in its potential future, and is one of the hardest hit industries when a society is in economic crisis.

The current US administration, and indeed the global capitalist system, is constantly focused on the creation and sustainability of wealth, often at the expense of the wellbeing of the general public. As the use of money and the dishonesty it seems to promote is a major theme of this play, it seems very relevant in today’s economic climate: particularly in regards to the current “cost of living crisis”. It is easy to draw parallels between our own period of late stage capitalism and the many calamities stemming from it (class/racial/religious prejudice, climate disaster, territorial conflicts) and the world of the play. It also poses the ever pertinent question, as explored in many works of Shakespeare: what constitutes effective leadership?

Timon, exceptionally wealthy and unbridled in their generosity, wines and dines the elite, serves as a patron to the arts and magnanimously funds the state. Convinced of the loving nature of humanity, he gives and keep on giving. Surely if Timon accidentally gave it all away his friends would be there to return the favour? This darkly funny, spin on Shakespeare’s riches to rags anti-capitalist satire will wow audiences with its confronting relevance to our lives today.