Multi award-winning Rendered Retina take you on a rip-roaring ride through Shakespeare’s least-known play “Timon of Athens” following their critically-acclaimed version of Shakespeare’s worst play. Except, this version of “Timon of Athens” is complete with original music, a transforming wooden box, a whole host of hats and bloomin’ good time! Tom Mangan speaks with Fringe Review’s Dr.Pants ahead of the festival about their new show of Shakespeare’s least popular play on October 23-Nov 1.
NAP: Hello Tom! So I assume (like most of our readers) that none of us has read Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens. What is it about?
TM: Timon of Athens is Shakespeare’s least-known play. We follow Timon, a wealthy Athenian philantropist who is far too generous for his own good. When we eventually becomes bankrupt he turns to his friends because of course they’ll help him out… or so he thinks. Ours is a family-friendly adaptation that leans into this being one of the Bard’s ‘problem plays’. Is it a comedy? Is it a tragedy? Well we’ll do both! 3 performers play 18 characters, with original songs to help the story along.
NAP: There are so many more popular and well-known Shakespeare plays. What inspired you to make a version of this show, his least known play?
TM: I guess you could call this a ‘spite play’. A number of years ago we were pitching an idea for a Shakespeare festival and the director we were pitching to said ‘try Timon of Athens… you won’t have heard of it’. Well we left thinking ‘how dare you assume we don’t know Timon of Athens… we don’t, but we’ll show you’. And we went from there. After our first read through though, we knew we were onto a winner.
NAP: You say it’s a family-friendly show, but Shakespeare is known for having difficult and flowery language. How have you made it accessible to all audiences?
TM: Well in terms of the overall story, it’s probably one of the more straight-forward. I think it’s always difficult to distill some of Shakespeare’s work down to an hour for fringe but this one lends itself well. Also, yes, all the spoken dialogue is in the Shakespearean language but our original music really helps explain parts (and even theorise parts that even Shakespeare himself left out) and our scene transitions make it easy to follow for any first-timers, while also being entertaining for Bard-lovers.
NAP: You won two awards last time you were at Colchester Fringe and audiences have been eager for you all to return. But is there any other reason you decided to perform at Colchester Fringe again?
TM: We are a company based in Essex, but have usually performed at festivals further afield. Two years ago we jumped at the chance to perform more locally to us and had the best time. Colchester have a thriving art scene and now a wonderful fringe festival. It was really a no-brainer.
NAP: There are lots of other Shakespeare shows at the fringe usually. This year at Colchester Fringe, there are two different Macbeths. What makes your Shakespeare show stand out against the others?
TM: Shakespeare is an ever-present at most fringes and festivals, but it’s always the same ones. We wanted to lean into the fact that you never see Timon of Athens, except every few decades at the RSC or maybe The Globe. Come and see a fringe adaptation of one that never gets done! This adaptation has already won 3 awards at other festivals, including the Creative Award at Prague Fringe. If thay doesn’t convince you, our last Shakespeare adaptation ‘King John’ won two awards at Colchester Fringe 2 years ago. We promise you a ‘whiplash-inducing jolly good time’ (BingeFringe).
NAP: What has been the biggest challenge in preparing/performing your work? Are you worried it being such an unknown Shakespeare play will affect how many audiences show up?
TM: In the same way ‘this show is never performed’ is a reason to come and see, it also has proved the challenge when making it. How can we make the show accessible for people who don’t already know the story? How do we balance to comedic/tragic elements of the play? Is there an appetite for Timon of Athens over other Shakespeare plays? But I truly believe you’ll enjoy what we’ve cooked up. We had a blast making it.
Ultimately we hope you leave with a smile on your face. It’s the cornerstone of our work. Let’s create something audiences will enjoy watching and let them leave the theatre uplifted, maybe humming one or two of the songs you’ve heard or repeating your favourite joke.
