Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

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No Shakespeare play has been subjected to so furious, sharply divided and sustained debate over its basic merit as Timon of Athens. The play is seldom produced, in part because it seems unfinished. It lacks Shakespeare's usual consistency of poetic genius, the second half is haphazardly structured and some speakers are even left without names. The military subplot is ill-conceived or incomplete, and the title character, with his unmitigated extremes, is often thought an emblem or a symbol, not a real human being. Few people know the play, and those who've heard of it often inherit more surrounding controversy than theatrical substance.

Nonetheless, given that most contemporary Shakespeare is director's theatre, Timon's absence from the stage seems odd: Texts are chopped and rearranged and reset so thoroughly that the canon is forever new. Certified flaws may actually seem apertures of opportunity for prying open the play and reconfiguring it at will. "Unfinished" becomes a special invitation.

Director Michael Langham, whose production of Timon runs through Jan. 5 at …