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| Marco St. John, Shepperd Strudwick. (Photos: Friedman-Abeles.) |
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| Michael Dunn, Shepperd Strudwick. |
Unproduced in 20th-century
New York until this version, Timon of
Athens starred Shepperd Strudwick in the title role. Its critical reception
made it unlikely there would be many major revivals in the years immediately
following, at least locally. Only Michael Dunn, a dwarf actor, who played
Apemantius, came off well. Everyone else shared the opprobrium with which the
play and direction were assailed.
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| Marco St. John, Shepperd Strudwick. |
Clive Barnes lashed
out at the “tedious” drama and its boring hero, a combination producing “the
dullest of dogs” as its offspring. The acting, verse-speaking, and directorial
fiddling were awful, he claimed, with Strudwick being seriously miscast. Walter
Kerr’s response to this drama about a man who starts out a philanthropist and
ends up a misanthrope was to reject it as “a disheartening business, a venture
that must go steadily downhill. . . . I have rarely seen a production in Central
Park so unsure of its pictorial effects, so grasping after nonexistent straws .
. . , so without power to shape scenes.” John Simon, critical of what he
believes an “unfinished” work, felt the production had made matters worse by
injudicious cutting (including the only two female characters).
Marco St. John was Alcibiades, and Norman Snow and Sam Tsoutsouvas of the Acting Company each had two small roles, but, unlike most of the Shakespeare in the Park productions of then and now, few actors of wide name recognition were involved.
Nest up: To Be or Not to Be--What Kind of a Question Is That?
