PREMIERE „Timon of Athens” – The Polish Classics Theatre, Gardzienice Theatre – "Gardzienice" Centre For Theatre Practices

“Timon of Athens” by William Shakespeare, translated by Antoni Libera (premiere performances)

October 16th (Thursday), 8:30 PM
October, 17th (Friday) 5:30 PM
October, 17th (Friday) 8:30 PM / Stage in Granary

Author of the performance: Włodzimierz Staniewski

Assistant of author of the performance: Anna Maria Słowikowska

Set design: Marek Chowaniec

Costumes: Aleksandra Reda i Weronika Karwowska

Music: Mikołaj Blajda

In the title role: Jarosław Gajewski

Lighting Co-Creators: Paweł Kieszko, Jędrzej Skajster

Musicians: Dymitr Harelau, Małgorzata Bardak, Weronika Fedyk, Bartek Godula

Sound Engineer: Maciej Znamierowski

Script Assistant: Aleksandra Szypowska

Subtitles: Joanna Holcgreber

Design and Construction of Alcibiades’s Horse: Tomasz Samoszuk

The production features an international cast, with subtitles in Polish

Cast:

Timon of Athens: Jarosław Gajewski

Apemantus: Dariusz Kowalski

Flavius: Michał Chorosiński

Alcibiades: Maciej Wyczański

Artists, Senators, Bandits: James Jack Bentham, Elliot Windsor, Charles Sobry

Phrynia, Timandra, and other Hetairai: Anna Maria Słowikowska, Agnieszka Guz, Anna Szymczak, Paulina Borowa-Misiarz, Dominika Malczyńska, Patrycja Malinowska, Julia Zhaglina

A FEW WORDS FROM THE TRANSLATOR

This drama was probably written between 1605 and 1606 and completed 1607. First published in a Folio edition in 1623, after the author’s death. First performed in an adaptation by Thomas Shadwell in 1674, and in the original author’s version only in 1761. (…)

Timon – a semi-legendary figure from the fifth century BC, who is mentioned in passing by Plutarch in his Lives of Famous Men – in the sixth chapter, where he juxtaposes Alcibiades with Coriolanus. There he states that Timon was a citizen of Athens living during the period of the Peloponnesian War (431-421 BC) and that one of the few people with whom he interacted was the young, boisterous Alcibiades. Plutarch also mentions that Timon was such an extravagant and controversial figure that he became an object of derision for the playwrights of his time, including Aristophanes.

A.Libera, Translator’s footnotes to Timon of Athens, in Greek Dramas. Timon of Athens, pp. 421-422.

MY NAME IS MISANTHROPE

‘It is the most peculiar of Shakespearean tragedies’. writes Robert Piłat.
When they ask him: who are you? Timon replies: My name is The Misanthrope. But let’s trace his story, because, after all, no one is born a misanthrope. (…) The protagonist of the play is a patrician of Athens: rich, influential, respected for his services to the state and liked for his generosity and sociability. Timon asks his friends about their needs, their past misfortunes, their desires. Having listened, he helps, and does so even when no one expects him to. When someone really needs help, he gives it in double and triple measure. (…) He experiences profound joy that he can be so generous and be able to manage everything. However, he falls into an unhealthy trance – the attitude of constantly being ready to help, constantly favouring people and even exceeding their expectations, turns into an addiction. (…) Timon’s enthusiasm is so great that when the manager of his estate presents him with the dangers of his excessive generosity, not concealing the threat of bankruptcy, Timon refuses to listen. Finally, trouble comes.

Author’s note for the performance:

The author of the performance fully identifies with this attitude toward life.

SHAME

The literature on shame, starting with the classic work of Max Scheller, often emphasises that a person is ashamed not so much because of what he has done, but because of who he is – he is ashamed of himself and for himself. When the dam separating us from shame bursts, it is impossible to predict where it will lead a person; certainly to the negation of a large part of his or her person. (…)

Promise me friendship, but do not demonstrate it. If you do not promise, may the gods send plagues upon you, for you are human. If you keep your pledge, may they curse you, for you are human. (IV, 3)

This is the essence of the tragic situation that concerns not only Timon, but all of us. (…)
We can say that in the basis of the disillusionment, bitterness, hatred, misanthropy that Timon reaches, we find at first a certain superficial motive of disillusionment, of bitterness as a result of the fact that the generosity of the individual does not meet with a response from other people. But underneath this superficial, psychological theme is a deeper one: the individual hides his awareness of his corrupted human nature from himself by committing self-deception. However, it turns out that this is not yet the deepest level. this one consists in the knowledge that even realising the whole bitter truth about human nature (and consequently choosing misanthropy) does not solve any riddle or give a sense of rightness. It is only another act of exaltation, of detachment, of false pride. One finds himself trapped in this constant distancing from a situation he considers evil, immoral, unbearable. In distancing himself from falsehood, he falls into another falsehood, this time precisely into a kind of pride that makes him curse everyone, attribute the worst motivations and intentions to others. (…)

Shakespeare thus poses to us a most difficult philosophical conundrum: How can the good be done, the good be restored, the good be cared for, if the good is a dynamic state whose losses, impairments, deficiencies are irreversible? To what resources can existence reach in order to save itself from such a profound collapse of faith in humanity and human connection as Timon of Athens suffered?

R. Piłat, Timon of Athens and the Riddle of Misanthropy, in: In Praise of Rosalind. Shakespearean Essays, Warsaw 2024, pp. 118–131.

Author’s note for the performance:

Throughout his entire adult, conscious life, the author of the performance has been struggling desperately with this tragic dilemma.