Timon of Athens

I’m not long back from seeing the RSC’s Timon of Athens broadcast live (well actually recorded live during the 2018 season) from the Swan Theatre in Stratford. I saw it with Caroline at Cineworld, and, as I have blogged before, I am very much converted to this way of watching a really excellent theatre performance. And really excellent it certainly was! I have neither read nor seen Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens before tonight, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The cast were all brilliant but Kathryn Hunter stood out as Timon - she had such presence and was so full of energy.
So, no spoilers, but rich and generous Timon of Athens has lots of friends - until she runs out of money. Then everything goes wrong. Timon of Athens has apparently often been regarded as an unfinished play because some characters are not fully developed and some of the plot lines are a bit strange. I would agree with this and would also comment that Timon is kind of annoying - going from totally over-the-top generosity to huge bitterness! However the play was still really good with a mix of comedy and tragedy; as Caroline said “You can’t go wrong with a bit of Shakespeare!”
In the morning I visited Grandma and we were writing Christmas cards together. Grandma always likes everything to be organised in good time for Christmas and she has been keen to get started on her cards. I have updated her Christmas card list (from several address books and last year’s list!) and got cards and stamps. She was sitting in the living room having a cup of tea and was chatting but a bit tired. We were chatting to another lady who was very friendly. We only got eight cards written but have plenty of time to finish the rest before it’s time to post them.