Timon Who? Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Performs Rare Play

You might know about “Hamlet,” Macbeth” and “Romeo and Juliet” but if you really want to brush up on your Shakespeare, you have a chance to see one of the Bard’s least-performed plays.

That’s because the  is presenting “Timon of Athens” at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre in Madison through July 24.

According to Brian B. Crowe, the director and adapter for this staging, the play is widely considered difficult to stage, partly because its two halves are very different in styles and tone, with the beginning being lighthearted and the end tragic. Another complicating factor is the drastic change the title character goes through.

As the play opens, he is a generous philanthropist who is mocked by Apemantus, who warns Timon that his so-called friends are using him for his money and would abandon him if he were to become broke. When that actually happens, Timon heads to woods and discovers an opportunity to exact revenge upon the citizens of Athens.

Starring as Timon is Greg Jackson, a regular of Shakespeare Theatre’s stage.

“I was so glad to get him involved in this show,” Crowe said. “He is a tremendous clown, I think a lot of people know him for his clown work and that kind of lighter side of things.”

He added that Jackson also “brings a wonderful sense of humanity and a true heart and pathos and wonder to his work.”

According to Crowe, Jackson is also able to handle Timon’s sudden transformation.

“It’s an extreme and graphic change, to go from this Utopic, optimistic philanthropist to one of the most vitriol-spewing misanthropes certainly in Shakespeare’s canon and I think in most of literature,” he said.

Crowe also promises an imaginative telling of the tale, moving it from Ancient Greece and giving it a turn-of-the-century feel with elements of vaudeville and other theatrical styles. He and the designers have envisioned Athens as a beautiful but somewhat gaudy and tarnished music box.

“It’s fun and lively but at the same time it’s held together with smudges of glue and little bits of wire that are barely holding this little machine together,” he said. “And then you’ll see what happens as that machine unravels as the play proceeds.”

The cast also features Bruce Cromer as Apemantus, the cynical philosopher who mocks Timon; Brent Harris as Alcibiades, the banished general; and John Seidman as Timon’s loyal servant. Making his Shakespeare Theatre debut is Geoffrey Owens, best-known for his role as Elvin in “The Cosby Show;” he plays a poet.

Crowe said he wasn’t very familiar with the play when he worked on it during a student workshop for the Shakespeare Theatre in 2008.

“It was a piece that on first read, I wasn’t exceptionally excited about,” he said. “It’s got an interesting story but it was actually when I was through working on the show that I really fell in love with this piece. It’s got such a wonderful group of eccentric characters, there is a great deal of humanity that comes through when you get it on its feet that I don’t think is as evident reading it on the page.”

Now, he said, “Timon” is one of his favorite Shakespeare plays, and one that resonates today as the United States deals with a long-struggling economy that many people blame on greed.

It’s been more than 30 years since the theater last presented the play, and Crowe said this is a great opportunity for Shakespeare fans and newbies.

“If people think they don’t like Shakespeare, then this is the one to see,” he said. That’s partly due to its 90-minute running length. Typically, he said, the show would run about 2 hours and 15 minutes with an intermission. The brevity is due more to merging scenes than cuts. He also cited the play’s heart, liveliness and twists as reasons for Shakespeare laymen enjoying it.

And for Shakespeare lovers?

“’Timon of Athens’ is rarely produced, the last time we did it here was over 30 years ago and it could quite possibly be another 30 years before we do it again,” Crowe said. “It’s one of those very rare gems that when you find out it’s going on, you should take very opportunity to see it. This is one to see, and it’s so timely right now.”

 “Timon of Athens” will be performed at F.M. Kirby Theatre on the campus of Drew University in Madison. For tickets and information, call 973-408-5600 or see ShakespeareNJ.org.