TIMON OF ATHENS: Opens to 5 Star Reviews, Screens NT Live 1 November

We’ve been very lucky that two of our NT Live productions that have opened thus far have both been graced with wonderful praise from both critics and audiences alike. First came The Last of the Haussmans and now comes Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens directed by our artistic director Nicholas Hytner starring Simon Russell Beale. These 5 Star reviews married with spectacular performances should be reason enough to book your NT Live tickets today for our 1 November LIVE broadcast.

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5 STARS The Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard
4 STARS Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail, Financial Times, Time Out, The Times

“A perfect parable for our times in Nicholas Hytner’s exhilarating production featuring a compelling central performance by Simon Russell Beale.” – The Guardian

“Fast, venomously satirical.” - Daily Mail

“Pure and Powerful” – Evening Standard

“Mischievous energy. Stunning” –The Times

“Nicholas Hytner has seized the cynical, disillusioned day. He hurls Timon into the 21st century and finds it lands there almost perfectly.” - Daily Telegraph

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SYNOPSIS: Wealthy friend to the rich and powerful, patron of the arts, ostentatious host, Timon of Athens showers gifts and hospitality on the city’s elite. He vastly outspends his resources but, finding his coffers empty, reassures his loyal steward that all will be well.

When he calls upon his former associates, instead of offering help, they hang him out to dry. After a final, vengeful banquet, Timon withdraws to a literal and emotional wasteland, living off roots and pouring ever more surreal curses on a morally bankrupt Athens.

Simon Russell Beale takes the title role in Shakespeare’s strange fable of conspicuous consumption, debt and ruin, written in collaboration with Thomas Middleton.