Fixing Timon, Unpayable Debts, and an Epitaph for the Flawed

Authors

  • Loren Cressler University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

Given Middleton and Shakespeare's explicit interest in debt and gift economies in Timon of Athens, and scholarship on the play's attention to the role of debt, this essay considers the borrowing and giving relationships between today's theater practitioners and the treasury of Shakespearean drama. I argue that Kirk Lynn and the Rude Mechs, through their attention to plays in need of "fixing," generate a different kind of currency than a standard adaptation and performance. The "Fixing Shakespeare" plays present a mode of adaptation as criticism, grounding a new text in a strong reading of Shakespearean drama. More than a translation, Lynn's script for Fixing Timon is itself a project of literary criticism that begins with attentive reading and delivers its argument through forceful characterization and narrative momentum. Thus, they balance the ledger with their source text, paying in as much or more than they borrow.

Author Biography

Loren Cressler, University of Texas at Austin

Loren Cressler recently completed a Ph.D. in English at The University of Texas at Austin. He has published in Studies in Philology. Current research interests include the circulation of news and historical knowledge in early modern England, dramatic genre, character types and their relations to form, classical reception, and medieval mediation of classical authors.

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Published

2019-05-01

Issue

Section

Appropriations in Performance Reviews