Shakespeare Globe

Timon of Athens

by William Shakespeare
Until 3 October

**** 'Lucy Bailey directs with a superbly reckless bravura... Brilliantly designed... Wonderful performance of Simon Paisley Day... A thrilling occasion and another hit in the Globe's spectacularly successful season' The Independent

**** 'Lucy Bailey’s impressively imaginative production... Fine performances... Leaves you perversely wondering if Bailey’s revival isn’t better than Shakespeare’s play' The Times

'Paisley Day is excellent, he brings conviction to Timon's asinine largesse and to his subsequent hatred of all humanity... There's good support from Patrick Godfrey as Timon's improbably loyal servant and Bo Poraj as the scathing philosopher Apemantus' Evening Standard

**** 'What gives this production zing is how director Lucy Bailey and designer William Dudley have made tremendously innovative use of the Globe’s space' Daily Express

'Refreshingly radical... Visually, the effect is striking' The Guardian

**** 'One approach to a play that's been largely forgotten is to stage it in a way that's unforgettable... Powerfully anchored in Paisley Day's highly articulate performance of a particularly demanding role' Metro

**** 'Imaginative staging and a thrilling central performance make easy work of Shakespeare’s most tricky text... A night that confounded expectations and wrung every last nuance from the text. Outstanding' LondonPaper

Timon, a rich and generous Athenian, showers everyone with gifts and hospitality. When the money runs out Timon turns to his friends for help. One by one they refuse. Timon, enraged and penniless, leaves Athens for life in the wilderness where he discovers a hidden cache of gold. Having no use for the money, Timon plans his revenge on the city.

A ruthless dissection of greed and flattery, Timon of Athens sees absurd comedy and gilded language veer suddenly into tragic satire and savage invective.

Lucy Bailey and designer William Dudley exhilarated and thrilled audiences with their sell-out production of Titus Andronicus here in 2006. Joining them is celebrated jazz composer Django Bates, who created the 'thrilling score' (The Times) for Titus, Punchdrunk associate director and choreographer Maxine Doyle who most recently devised the 'extraordinary feats of choreography' (The Observer) for The Masque of the Red Death at the BAC.

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