TIMON OF ATHENS

"Who can speak broader than he that has no house to put his head in? Such may rant against great buildings?"

Cardboard Citizens gave a complex, thought-provoking Timon in the Shakespeare Centre; the audience was asked to classify themselves by annual income, with a red dot for the Timons, and then in an antechamber to the theatre put through a rather mild interaction which never really took off [perhaps to the relief of us red dots]. The play itself was effectively intercut with filmed scenes of evictions, and Timon, played by three different actors in styles ranging from the polished to the raw, ended up as a Cardboard Citizen himself.

The Times commented,

"It was an inspired idea to ask Cardboard Citizens, a company that works with and partly consists of the homeless, refugees and asylum seekers, to make this play its contribution to the RSC’s Bardathon. Was there ever so absolute a drop-out as Timon? One moment he’s rich, secure and complacent, and the next he’s living in what here is less a cave than an improvised box; filthy, embittered and ranting."

Personal Star rating [out of five] ***