Timon of Athens: Shakespeare in the Barn. Seriously.

Timon of Athens
Orangemite Productions - Dover, Pennsylvania
October 14, 2012

Brad - A
Chelsea - B

Dover, Pennsylvania is roughly two hours from Washington, DC.  This is a fact I would have never learned without having tried to see 37 plays in one year.  And Dover, PA --- originally named Jonerstown after its founder James Joner, no kidding, Jimmy Joner --- is home to Shakespeare in the Barn:

 This fall Orangemite productions produced Timon of Athens, a rarely produced gem, with significant Oxfordian overtones.  So, the play was, indeed, in a barn.

And it was awesome.

So, Timon of Athens is a story that Ayn Rand would be proud of that amply demonstrates the fallacy of altruism.  But I digress.  Timon of Athens is a wealthy Athenian from Athens.  The play starts off with Timon (the one from Athens, Greece) being carelessly generous with his funds.  He throws a dinner party, and everyone shows up and eats his food, drinks his wine, and dances his dances.  But then one of Timon's creditors demands repayment, and Timon learns he is out of cash.  Timon goes to his "friends" to collect on the loans he gave, and all of his "friends" bail on him.  So, Timon throws a second dinner party for the moochers --- read as, looters (for the Randian readers).  At the second dinner party, Timon serves rocks and tells the hangers-on that they are all worthless.  After that, he escapes to the woods and lives the life of a homeless woodsman.  But he discovers buried gold.  And he is suddenly rich again.  The parasites learn about Timon's new wealth and they come a callin.  He shoots them down, but he does fund an uprising against Athens.  Then Timon dies.  But the uprising is successful and the play ends with the new Athens leader reading Timon's epitaph.  

So, from our seats, if you looked forward you saw this:

 And if you looked to the right you saw this:

It was actually a great production. Some of the smaller parts were pretty rough, but the leads were all very good.  Flavius, the advisor to Timon who tells him he is broke, was great.  All of the actors were volunteers, and quite a few of them were still in high school.  One of the most impressive things about the play was the direction.  The director did a great job of editing the play to a manageable length while keeping all of the dialogue necessary to the play.  Great job.  And as you can see below, it was packed.

On the way home, we stopped at a pumpkin pyramid.  We went on a hayride.  We picked a pumpkin. 

And then on the way home, we listened to Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967 five or six times in a row to try and figure out whether Walt died or not.  Conclusion: No idea.  Good work, Mr. Mayer.

Great Sunday.  Number 31. Awesome.

Brad of Athens