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