Red Alert

I have a Google Alert set up with my own name, and once somebody told me they thought that was vain; but how else was I supposed to find all of the bad reviews of my work, where people said I sucked and should die (or at least stop writing)?

I am exaggerating. Only one guy to date said I should die, and he later recanted.

But I also find good stuff, like this promotional trailer for Hellshocked aka Black Mass aka The Da Vinci Curse aka Dead Knight, which has yet to see release in the United States, and everyone who worked on it think it's so good hardly anybody would wish I would die after viewing it. Jon McBride posted it, using a lot of my pictures, and you get some nice frame grabs including one of me getting machine-gunned straight up in the face (for fans). It did get released it Japan, and as was reported with first-hand evidence on this very blog was quite popular. You can buy it in the Japanese version but it would surely be cool to see it stateside. Check out the original trailer here.

Possibly the most astounding thing I have found using Google Alerts is this, my Senior Honors Thesis from 1988 A.D. Thanks to the bane that is modern technology, this formerly lost screenplay, typed on a Smith-Corona Electric Typewriter with a big jug of White-Out, is now available for all to see. Using the same world I used for my award-winning David Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship project in 1987, Deadlines has my cooler alter-ego, Buster Sampson, following a murderer across a college campus suspiciously reminscient of Ball State University as a reporter for a newspaper somewhat like the Ball State Daily News. I scanned it, somewhat painfully, and recalled my obsession with Cornell Woolrich that now seems glaringly evident in hindsight, along with a now curiously dated interest in punk rock and the alternative music scene.

Not that anyone would want it, but because of my interest in Creative Commons I am releasing this work under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

More later; until then, I am at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

More Dead and Long Live

I got a lot of hits on my musings about grassroots DV and its next incarnation, and lots of comments here and in emails. Thanks to one and all for the continued feedback.

Longtime reader Scott writes, I read your blog post on the new face of grassroots cinema. Interesting stuff, and certainly a lot to think about. I'm not sure how much I like the idea of working hard on a project only to make it available for free, or at least doing that on a regular basis. I think there's a sense of entitlement that young Internet users have -- they not only want everything without paying for it, but they also take pride in being the first to make something that should be paid for available for free...I realize that what you're talking about is different than the wholesale theft of movies, but I think it all comes from the same place. I also think a lot of this "mumblecore" and whatnot stems from impatient people wanting to make movies, but not wanting to make the effort to do it right -- they want to invent some half-assed way of crapping it out without bothering to light or mic anything or even do a halfway professional job of shooting it, then turn that half-assedness into a new "movement" to lend themselves credence. Maybe it's the crotchety old man in me talking, but I don't have any interest in that sort of stuff -- I feel like I work hard as a writer and as a filmmaker and it irritates me to see both those forms reduced to Internet shorthand (don't even get me started on the self-proclaimed "writers" that litter the Net). I guess my opinion could be summed up thusly: the easy, worldwide availability of shit doesn't make it any less shitty, no matter how much people try to make you think you're looking at gold. Jeez. I'm gonna go back out on the porch and whittle my stick.

New reader Michael writes, I enjoyed your blog post and feel your perception of technology and media is right on. Itunes seems to be the leader in the technology of transporting media via Itunes, but it is all mainstream and one has to find other sources for projects that are more grassroots or independent. I don't like watching full length movies or reading lengthy manuscripts on my computer either, but I've noticed, though it's too expensive right now, Apple selling Apple TV and large TV monitors so one can watch their computer media content on their big screen TV's. Then you have Amazon's release of the KINDLE.
The wirless reading device is suppose to read like paper, but it's pricey at the moment too. But I think the switch in technology and media that you mention in your article is inevitable, which is why it was great for the writers to fight for their part in it all now.
Another new trend I see is webisodes. Many people, who might have never gotten their break otherwise, are getting Hollywoods attention by creating a webisode series, each on being 3 minutes long. Why 3 mins? I think it's because, like you and I, people don't want to 90 minute movies on their computer. But people, including me, will watch a 3 minute webisode (even during their break at work).

This is basically the kind of thing I'm talking about.

I'm trying to get smarter by going to this.

By the way, my alma mater, Ball State University, is working on a feature film this summer with one of probably our top ten most famous Telecommunications alums (after David Letterman), Doug Jones. Unbelievably, he was the sports mascot for the Fighting Cardinals when I was in town, now he's in Hellboy movies and Pan's Labyrinth and played the Silver Surfer and more. Meanwhile, one of the dudes in the bottom ten alums wasn't asked to do anything with it.

Keep hollerin' at me at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Grassroots DV is Dead; Long Live Grassroots DV

Every summer I like to sit down and write one script entirely for myself. I have actually never sold a spec script--every one of my fifteen or so projects have been for hire--so I generally write something that I alone might enjoy and then if something one day happens with it I can be pleasantly surprised.

This summer I decied I would write the script on the Celtx open source platform and then release it under a Creative Commons license. The summer is half over but I have barely gotten started. I think part of it is that I have been sensing some new trends and trying to sniff them out, of which all of the previous stuff I mentioned is a part.

Back around the turn of the century, 1999 or so, I decided with my career settled in and my kids growing along, I would spend a year trying to get my freelancing career on track again. In the late 80s I saw the mom and pop video store boom lead to a strong need for direct to video content (that old pals like the Polonia Brothers filled), but at that time I was a young father and rookie employee and I watched from afar. Content is a hungry beast that always needs to be fed, so when I saw DVD taking off so strongly I knew that need for direct-to-DVD content would be there.

I started trying to re-learn the genre content again. I had grown up on Japanese rubber monsters and Italian sword and scorcery and Russian sci-fi but had a long layoff in college studying film and watching French New Wave and Italian Neorealism and the like. I watched the movies and felt out the trends and started off with two specs; a horror story about a backyard wrestling star possessed by a demon called ONIBOCHO: THE DEMON KNIFE and a dark fantasy everything-but-the-kitchen-sink scarefest called SWORD OF THE ZOMBIE and later DOOMED SWORD RISING and later RING OF THE SORCERESS based on various people's interest. But as I said I have never sold a spec. But I did catch the eye of longtime b-movie producer Mark Polonia, who tested me out on a bigfoot movie script titled AMONG US that is still playing on cable today, and the rest is perhaps history if not truly current events.

At that same time I was starting on a parallel track. I found out that there were a lot of people making their own movies, b-movies and other genres including some that don't easy bear defining. People were screening these in all kinds of funky places and swapping them in the mail. The technology gap was closing such that people felt empowered to produce their own content outside of the mainstream. Where these movies screened were called Microcinemas, and before long the genre for this type of movie was called Microcinema, dubbed so by no less an authority than Wired Magazine.

For me, the big site at the time was ReWind Video, started by a bunch of Canadians who espoused "amateur" filmmaking. I was personally involved in public access television at that time (and now manage the third largest public access television facility in Indiana) and saw this as a natural extension. They launched a film festival, Microcinema Fest, which ran for seven consecutive years before going on hiatus this year. I met a lot of very talented people through this site and the fest and before long filmmakers Jason Santo, Gary Lumpp, Joe Sherlock and I were swapping VHS tapes in the mail and writing each other intricate and sometimes scathing reviews of this work. Santo has always been an ambitious dude, and five years ago this month he launched Microcinema Scene with Gary and I as contributing writers. I wrote hundreds of articles and reviews for the site over the years and piloted the ship for about a year after Jason moved on and before Christopher Sharpe, who I worked on with SEX MACHINE, took over the helm.

ReWind Video has become a wiki and Microcinema Scene is not as active as it once was. The Fest, that I contributed to in judging, MCing, and otherwise the last four years in South Dakota and Illinois is in transition. I think a lot of the early adopters of microcinema in the late 90s have gotten more into family and job commitments, and I saw a disconnect between them and the next generation coming through the ranks. The change in troops didn't really impact me, because I waited until I was an older guy already before I ever got involved. I just kept getting older as most of the people around me got younger.

I think part of what happened was the technology gap has narrowed even more, and I think that with YouTube and its related ilk, as well as the impact of DV in Hollywood, the need for community has lessened somewhat. Back when everybody was shooting SVHS, Hi-8 or even early GL-2s and the like nobody was fooling anybody about where their work was ending up, and I think there was the sense you could be more experimental. Now I think the young Turks can see a more smoothly-paved road to acceptance than their predecessors.

But as this light dims somewhat I have sensed something else on the horizon. There is a lot of talk of free independent content and of the internet as a delivery platform for this content. Again we see a lot of early adopters (too many to list here), from people like the Four Eyed Monsters folks who released their feature free on YouTube in sections to the Butterknife detective show by those mumblecore guys to Cory Doctorow releasing his novels free in a variety of forms to Warren Ellis writing Freak Angels for the web to people writing pulp fiction and otherwise and setting it loose as PDFs. There is Creative Commons and tons of content readers for video and text. People catching fire through viral video is becoming commonplace.

Mainstream movies and television are trying to figure out how it all works by posting TV shows on their sites and so on but again my interest lies with the grassroots efforts. I think we are on the cusp of the next thing, but I fear I am too old to fully grasp it. When microcinema took off I was still doing video production on a daily basis and pretty much knew what was going on tech-wise. Now I am in management and the production guys hope I don't interfere with what they're up to too much. I had only shot a little HD before I left my previous job and I had to finally admit that too many versions of FCP have gone by and I can't keep up any more, which is a shame because I was a pretty good editor, I thought (though my shooting and directing are still pretty sharp, in my opinion). Part of my problem is that I don't like to watch movies on my computer screen (except my own movies on Netflix's "Watch It Now" function, of course) and I don't like to read books on the computer much either (but somewhat tolerated The Shadow on my old Palm Pilot). I don't watch YouTube often and never download music.

But lots of people do all of the above, and again the cry for fresh content is or will be as deafening as it was with VHS and DVD. I think part of the problem is people trying to figure out how best to use the web to deliver new content, and I'm not convinced anybody has it right yet. I do believe, however, that a large amount of this content will run along genre lines, pulp content most specifically. There is something about the immediacy, and some would say the easy digestability and quick discardability, of pulp fiction that seems ready-made for the internet.

None of this is news to people who are involved with it or have been following it longer than I have, but I am taking this summer to figure out my part in it. I have released some of my work under Creative Commons licenses (and they can be found on this site) and my next spec will be as well. I had pitched the idea that this year's Microcinema Fest be an intensive production workshop with the goal being shooting and releasing a feature under Creative Commons with all of the raw footage being made available to the public domain. Although there was some interest, there was not enough to justify resurrecting the Fest this year, but I am still thinking about doing this on my own this Fall.

It seems to be an interesting time. But though I have guessed right on trends before I have also guessed wrong. I never thought CDs would take off because they just looked like little versions of records. I'm not sure if this "free content, internet platform" trend has a name yet, but I'll keep looking.

In the meantime, give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

I'll Play The Radio On Southern Stations

Generally I try to reserve the summer months to write a spec script that is exactly something I want to read. Thus, all of them are comfortably gathering cyber-dust, but I am glad I wrote them.

Last year I was too busy writing or rewriting seven screenplays for four different producers and in 2006 I took the summer off, but before that I think the last one I did was TIMON OF ATHENS, my modern dress, original prose version of Shakespeare's most broken play, which after patching up a b-movie script or two I thought I might be up to the task for. Loyal readers know that after a thunderous silence I recently released my version of TIMON OF ATHENS under a Creative Commons license at this very site, hoping it will find a home.

So when I started thinking about this summer's script, well into June now, I thought I might write this year's spec for Creative Commons, and go one better and write it on the Celtx 1.0 platform. People are always asking me about Celtx because it is a free open source software for screenwriting (and some other things). As far as I know, the world is split between Movie Magic Screenwriter and Final Draft; I happen to be a MM guy because the first person I sold a script to had it and loaned me a license during the project, so I pretty much had to learn it. When I got paid, I bought it for myself. But I know just as many people love Final Draft and I know it works fine. And those two are pretty much the industry standards.

But this Celtx looks pretty interesting, so I downloaded and started playing with its features. Now I just have to think of what to write. But when it's done, it will be posted free under a Creative Commons license on an open source software. Pretty interesting to think about, eh?

I always compose a "Secret Soundtrack" of songs that help get my juices flowing. That dovetails nicely, I think, to this Seven Songs meme I poached from Warren Ellis:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs.

Warren Ellis is much cooler than me and if I actually listened to any of his song choices my head would probably explode, as I live in a humble rural area of America's Heartland. Thankfully I do have a kid in college home for the summer who happens to be blasting music out of her room all of the time, so some of the more hipster choices of America's youth have filtered into my subconscious, basically frozen musically around 1983. But these are a couple of songs that are getting my juices flowing for writing this summer:

1. WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE by My Chemical Romance. Gives me chills. And read THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY too.

2. GOLD DIGGER by Kanye West. Reminds me of those fun, clever raps of the early 90s.

3. FLAGPOLE SITTER by Harvey Danger. I want to publish zines, and rage against machines.

4. CLUMSY by Fergie. I know this goes against my very nature, but somehow I like the 30s-style men's chorus coupled with the 80s-Pong sound FX.

5. MERCY by Duffy. Retro-cool, kinda goes without saying.

6. CRAZY by Gnarls Barkley. This dude knows what he's talking about.

6. I WILL FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK by Death Cab for Cutie. Takes me back to the early 80s New Wave. Also, my daughter just got back from the concert and keeps playing it over and over.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Timon of Athens Pt. 12: Conclusion

This is it; the downbeat conclusion of my modern dress, original prose version of Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS, released under a Creative Commons license.
Here, Alcibiades' hostile takeover of Athens OS is eminent. I tried to stave off a little of the dourness of the ending by extrapolating out a little bit.
I hope you have enjoyed this experiment!

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (HALLWAY) -- LATER
We see Isidore and Titus coming down the hallway, looking grim. Hortensius joins them.


ISIDORE
Thou hast painfully discovered; are his files as full as thy report?

HORTENSIUS
I have spoke the least; besides, his expedition promises present approach.


TITUS
We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon.

HORTENSIUS
I met a courier, one mine ancient friend, whom, though in general part we were opposed, yet our old love made a particular force, and made us speak like friends. This man was riding from Alcibiades to Timon's cave, with letters of entreaty, which imported his fellowship in the cause against your city, in part for his sake moved.


Varro, Demeas, and Caphis come storming down the hall.

ISIDORE
Here comes our brothers.


VARRO
No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect. The enemy's drum is heard, and fearful scouring doth choke the air with dust. In, and prepare. Ours is the fall, I fear; our foe's the snare.

EXT. TIMON'S OFFICE BUILDING -- CONTINUOUS
We see Alcibiades' car pull up, and he and Phrynia climb out. He looks at the building, taking its measure, eyes narrow. Then he leans over to Phrynia and mutters something in her ear. She nods and gets back behind the wheel. As she pulls out, Alcibiades stalks inside.

EXT. STREETS -- MOMENTS LATER
We see Phrynia tooling out of town.

EXT. WOODS -- LATER
Phrynia slows, watching the side of the road.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (HALLWAY) -- MOMENTS LATER
Alcibiades strides down the hall, looking at the empty desks and general clutter, his face a mask.
Caphis pops out of a doorway, and Alcibiades stops him cold with a glare.

ALCIBIADES
Sound to this coward and lascivious town our terrible approach.

Caphis lopes off down the hall.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (BOARDROOM) -- MOMENTS LATER
Caphis bursts in and takes a seat in the back, as the others exchange glances.

Alcibiades slips in behind him, and looks around. He moves to the head of the table, and leans on his knuckles.


ALCIBIADES
Till now you have gone on and filled the time with all licentious measure, making your wills the scope of justice; till now myself and such as slept within the shadow of your power have wandered with our traversed arms and breathed our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush, when crouching marrow in the bearer strong cries of itself 'no more.' Now breathless wrong shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease, and pursy insolence shall break his wind with fear and horrid flight.

Varro wipes sweat.

VARRO
Noble and young, when thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear, we see to thee, to give thy rages balm, to wipe out our ingratitude with loves above their quantity.

DEMEAS
So did we woo transformed Timon to our city's love by humble message and by promised means. We were not all unkind, nor all deserve the common stroke of war.

EXT. WOODS -- CONTINUOUS
Phrynia scans the woods.

PHRYNIA
Who's here? Speak, ho! No answer?

She stops short, seeing a mound of dirt. On it is Timon's note, pinned down by a rock.

PHRYNIA (CONT'D)
What is this? Timon is dead, who hath outstretched his span; some beast reared this, there does not live a man. Dead, sure; and this his grave.

Wondering, Phrynia slips the note out and reads it.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (BOARDROOM) -- CONTINUOUS
The boardroom is tense.

VARRO
Those walls of our were not erected by their hands from whom you have received your griefs; nor are they such that these great towers, trophies and schools, should fall for private faults in them.

DEMEAS
Nor are they living who were the motives that you first went out; shame that they wanted cunning, in excess hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord, into our city with thy banners spread; by decimation, and a tithed death--if thy revenges hunger for that food which nature loathes--take thou the destined tenth, and by the hazard of the spotted die let die the spotted.

Alcibiades stands, arms crossed.

EXT. WOODS -- CONTINUOUS
Phrynia bursts from the woods, paper flapping, and gets in the car.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (BOARDROOM) -- CONTINUOUS

VARRO
All have not offended; for those that were, it is not square to take on those that are, revenges; crimes, like lands, are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage. Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall with those that have offended. Like a shepherd, approach the fold and cull the infected forth, but kill not all together.

ISIDORE
What thou wilt, thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile than hew to it with thy sword.

VARRO
Set but thy foot against our rampired gates, and they shall ope; so thou wilt send thy gentle heart before, to say thou'lt enter friendly.

EXT. TIMON'S OFFICE BUILDING -- MOMENTS LATER
Phrynia pulls up and jumps out at full throttle.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (BOARDROOM) -- MOMENTS LATER
All eyes are on Alcibiades.

DEMEAS
Throw thy glove, or any token of thine honor else, that thou wilt use the wars as thy redress and not as our confusion, all thy powers shall make their harbor in our town, till we have sealed thy full desire.

Alcibiades removes a thick file from his briefcase, and slaps it on the table.

ALCIBIADES
Then there's my glove; descend, and open your uncharged ports. Those enemies of Timon's and mine own whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof fall and no more. And, to atone your fears with my more noble meaning, not a man shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream of regular justice in your city's bounds, but shall be rendered to your public laws at heaviest answer.

VARRO
(woodenly)
'­Tis most nobly spoken.

ALCIBIADES
Descend, and keep your words.

Suddenly Phrynia bursts in, gasping.

PHRYNIA
My noble general, Timon is dead; entombed upon the very hem of the sea.
Alcibiades reels, steadies himself on the table.

Phrynia, hand shaking, gives him Timon's note. He takes it, and reads.

ALCIBIADES
"Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft; seek not my name; a plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate; pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait."
(beat, to himself)
These well express in thee thy latter spirits; though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, scorn'dst our brain's flow and those our droplets which from niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye on thy low grave, on faults forgiven.
(beat, looks around)
Dead is noble Timon, of whose memory hereafter more. Bring me into your city, and I will use the olive with my sword, make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each prescribe to other as each other's leech. Let our drums strike.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. TIMON'S OFFICE BUILDING -- DAY
THEME MUSIC UP AND UNDER as Alcibiades comes out and addresses the assembled press from a podium. It is shot as if on a newscast, as below a CG reads: NEW CEO OUSTS ATHENS-OS BOARD.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (HALLWAY) -- DAY
We see Caphis, Hortensius, and Titus in a cluster, talking in low tones, files and personal effects tucked under their arms.
They look up and see Servilius and Flaminius carrying their boxes back in.
The groups exchange glances, then Caphis turns aside as Servilius walks past. A smile plays on Servilius' lips.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (ANTEROOM) -- MOMENTS LATER
Flavia is arranging her desk as Alcibiades pops his head out with a sheaf of papers. She takes them with a nod and a brief smile and puts them on the corner of her desk.
She has set the papers next to a newspaper whose headline shouts: "CAPTAIN AL" REVIVES ATHENS STOCKS.
We see her unpacking her pens, pencils, and a little picture frame.
Cut close to see a candid photo of a smiling Timon looking out.
Flavia sits it by the phone, and adjusts it with a tiny nudge.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
INT. APEMANTUS' APARTMENT -- DAY
Apemantus is sitting on the edge of a futon in an untidy studio apartment of posters and beaded curtains and leaning stacks of LPs. He is staring at a long, thin box that appears to have been recently delivered, noted by the scraps of brown paper on the floor by his scuffed shoes.
Apemantus lifts the top and sees a red-and-navy-striped power tie nestled in the box.
He looks at it for a long moment.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. TIMON'S OFFICE BUILDING -- DAY
We see a spruced-up Apemantus emerging from a car in front of Timon's building. Again we see through a photog's eyes, as if it were a breaking news event. A CG CRAWL READS: APEMANTUS NAMED V.P. OF PHILANTHROPIC GIVING.
Then we cut back to Apemantus live, working his way upstream through the press.
Once more he stops, looking up and up and up, at Timon's building.
We see the shining building, from Apemantus' POV, tall and majestic.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. WOODS -- CONTINUOUS
We track past the grass, the trees, catching flashes of clear blue sky.
FADE TO BLACK
CREDITS



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens Pt. 11

In this installment of my modern dress, original prose version of Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS we see another use of the Greek chorus using video trickery (also a b-movie standby to seem like you have a fuller cast, but needing fewer people at a time); then the Athens OS Board of Directors try to use Timon to head off a hostile takeover.
Mercer is one of the mysterious figures in TIMON, often considered a "broken" play or a draft; in the original, he is listed amongst the actors but comes on stage and has no lines. Thus I named my non-speaking TV show host after him.

INT. TELEVISION STUDIO -- NIGHT
We see Sempronius and Ventidius on a talk show hosted by MERCER, a glib anchor.

VENTIDIUS
When Fortune in her shift and change of mood spurns down her late beloved, all his dependents which labored after him to the mountain's top even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, not one accompanying his declining foot.

SEMPRONIUS
'Tis common. A thousand moral paintings I can show that shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's more pregnantly than words. Yet you do well to show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen the foot above the head.

We see a BURST OF STATIC like a channel changing.

EXT. STREETS -- DAY
We see "man on the street" interviews.

PISANDER
Why, this world's soul; and just of the same piece is every flatterer's spirit. Who can call him his friend that dips in the same dish? For, in my knowing, Timon has been this lord's father, and kept his credit with his purse, supported his estate; nay, Timon's money has paid his men their wages; he ne'er drinks, but Timon's silver treads upon his lip. And yet--O, see the monstrousness of man when he looks out in an ungrateful shape! He does deny him, in respect of his, what charitable men afford to beggars.

EUTRAPELUS
Religion groans at it.

GNATHONIDES
For mine own part, I never tasted Timon in my life, nor came any of his bounties over me, to mark me for his friend; yet, I protest, for his right noble mind, illustrious virtue and honorable carriage, had his necessity made use of me, I would have put my wealth into donation, and the best half should have returned to him, so much I love his heart; But, I perceive, men must learn now with pity to dispense; for policy sits above conscience.

Another BURST OF STATIC like a channel changing.

EXT. DOWNTOWN -- DAY
We see a serious Alcibiades getting into his car, with Phrynia behind the wheel; somber NEWS MUSIC plays, and a CG reads: ATHENS TAKEOVER EMINENT? SHAREHOLDER BUYOUT?

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (BOARDROOM) -- CONTINUOUS
Varro turns off the TV in the boardroom, looking sick. So does the rest of the board. Flavia is standing there, looking seriously from face to face, though nobody meets her eyes.

FLAVIA
It is in vain that you would speak with Timon; for he is set so only to himself that nothing but himself which looks like a man is friendly with him.

Demeas shrugs wearily.

DEMEAS
It is our part and promise to the Athenians to speak with Timon.

VARRO
At all times alike men are not still the same; 'twas time and griefs that framed him thus. Time, with his fairer hand, offering the fortunes of his former days, the former man may make him. Bring us to him, and chance it as it may.
Flavia stands still, thinking.

INT. DEMEAS' CAR -- LATER
Caphis is driving Varro, Demeas, and Flavia in the back seat, Flavia scrunched in the corner, looking morose.

EXT. WOODS -- CONTINUOUS
Flavia leads Varro and Demeas through the trees.

FLAVIA
Peace and content be here.
(calls out)
Lord Timon! Timon! Look out, and speak to friends; the Athenians, by two of their most reverend senate, greet thee. Speak to them, noble Timon.

Timon emerges from the trees.

TIMON
Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn! Speak, and be hanged; for each true word, a blister! And each false be as cauterizing to the root of the tongue, consuming it with speaking!

Varro takes in the bedraggled Timon, then finds his voice.

VARRO
Worthy Timon--

TIMON
O none but such as you, and you of Timon.

VARRO
The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.

TIMON
I thank them; and would send them back the plague, could I but catch it for them.

Varro stops cold, then tries to push on.

VARRO
O, forget what we are sorry for ourselves in thee. The senators with one consent of love entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought on special dignities, which vacant lie for thy best use and wearing.

DEMEAS
They confess toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross; which now the public body, which doth seldom play the recanter, feeling in itself a lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal of its own fail, restraining aid to Timon; and send forth us, to make their sorrowed render, together with a recompense more fruitful than their offence can weigh down by the dram. Aye, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth as shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs and write in thee the figures of their love, ever to read them thine.

Timon scratches his matted hair.

TIMON
You witch me in it; surprise me to the very brink of tears; lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, and I'll besweep these comforts, worthy senators.

VARRO
Therefore, so please thee to return with us and of our Athens, thine and ours, to take the captainship.

Flavia looks shocked.

VARRO (CONT'D)
Thou shalt be met with thanks, allowed with absolute power and they good name live with authority. So soon we shall drive back of Alcibiades the approaches wild, who, like a boar too savage, doth root up his country's peace.

DEMEAS
And shakes his threatening sword against the walls of Athens.

VARRO
Therefore, Timon--

TIMON
Well, sir, I will. Therefore, I will, sir. Thus: if Alcibiades kill my countrymen, let Alcibiades know this of Timon; that Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens, and take our goodly aged men by the beards, giving our holy virgins to the stain of contumelious, beastly, mad-brained war, then let him know-- and tell him Timon speaks it--in pity of our aged and our youth, I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not, and let him take it at worst. For their knives care not, while you have throats to answer. For myself, there's not a whittle in the unruly camp but I do prize it at my love before the reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you to the protection of the prosperous gods, as thieves to keepers.

Varro and Demeas look on in amazement. Flavia shakes her head.

FLAVIA
Stay not; all's in vain.

TIMON
Why, I was writing my epitaph; it will be seen tomorrow. My long sickness of health and living now begins to mend, and nothing brings me all things. Go, live still; be Alcibiades your plague, you his, and last so long enough!

VARRO
We speak in vain.

They begin to turn away. Suddenly, Timon smiles.

TIMON
But I love my country, and am not one that rejoices in the common wreck, as common bruit doth put it.

VARRO
(relieved)
That's well put.

TIMON
Commend me to my loving countrymen--

VARRO
Those words become your lips as they pass through them.

DEMEAS
And enter in our ears like great triumphers in their applauding gates.

TIMON
Commend me to them, and tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, their pangs of love, with other incident throes that nature's fragile vessel doth sustain in life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them. I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.

VARRO
(to Demeas)
I like this well; he will return again.

Timon points to a big tree.

TIMON
I have a tree, which grows here in my close, that mine own use invites me to cut down, and shortly must I fell it. Tell my friends, tell Athens, in the sequence of degree from high to low throughout, that whoso please to stop affliction, let him take his haste, come hither, ere my tree hath felt the ax, and hang himself. I pray you, do my greeting.

FLAVIA
Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.

Flavia ushers Varro and Demeas away, glancing over her shoulder with tears in her eyes.

TIMON
Come not to me again; but say to Athens, Timon hath made his everlasting mansion upon the beached verge of the salt flood; who once a day with his embossed froth the turbulent surge shall cover. Thither come, and let my grave-stone be your oracle. Lips, let sour words go by and language end; what is amiss plague and infection mend! Graves only be men's works and death their gain! Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.

Now Timon is alone.

He looks at the tree. We see him thinking. He looks at the tree.

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- MOMENTS LATER
Caphis sees the dejected group come out of the woods, and shakes his head.

VARRO
His discontents are unremoveably coupled to nature.

DEMEAS
Our hope in him is dead; let us return, and strain what other means is left unto us in our dear peril.

VARRO
It requires swift foot.

They pile in, and Caphis pulls out.

INT. DEMEAS' CAR -- CONTINUOUS
We see the plush interior of the car, and Flavia staring out.
From her POV, we see outside the window, the trees going by.

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- MOMENTS LATER
Caphis suddenly SLAMS on the brakes and pulls over to the side.
Flavia jumps out the back door and starts running back down the road.

EXT. WOODS -- MOMENTS LATER
Flavia slaps aside branches, running faster and faster.
Suddenly, she stops short.
We see Timon's feet swinging above Flavia's head.
Flavia sees a note, speared on a branch. She leans in and reads it.She EXPELS a long breath. We see her pick up Timon's rusty ax, and lean against his broken shovel.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens Pt. 10

After a busy week, I will try to finish posting the rest of TIMON OF ATHENS over the next few days. Here, with news of Timon's isolation and apparent madness spreading after the dotcom burst, a friend--and a pair of fairweather friends--come to call. Lots of good Shakespearean burns and zings in this part.

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- DAY
We see Flavia riding her bike, watching for signs along the side of the road.
Eventually she pulls over and dismounts, leaning her bike against a tree.

EXT. WOODS -- MOMENTS LATER
Timon is sifting through his bag of money.

TIMON
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce 'twixt natural son and sire! Thou bright defiler of Hymen's purest bed! Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue set them into confounding odds, that beasts may have the world in empire!

Flavia watches from the trees.

FLAVIA
O you gods! Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord? Full of decay and failing? O monument and wonder of good deeds evilly bestowed! What an alteration of honor has desperate want made! What viler thing upon the earth than friends who can bring noblest minds to basest ends! How rarely does it meet with this time's guise, when man was wish'd to love his enemies! Grant I may ever love, and rather woo those that would mischief me than those that do! He has caught my eye; I will present my honest grief unto him; and, as my lord, still serve him with my life.

Flavia comes into full view.

FLAVIA (CONT'D)
My dearest master!

TIMON
Away! What art thou?

FLAVIA
Have you forgot me, sir?
(beat)
An honest poor servant of yours.

TIMON
Then I know thee not; I never had honest man about me, I; All I kept were knaves, to serve meat to villains.

Flavia's eyes mist up, and she turns away.

FLAVIA
The gods are witness, ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief for his undone lord than mine eyes for you.

Timon softens.

TIMON
What, dost thou weep? Come nearer. Then I love thee, because thou art a woman, and disclam'st flinty mankind.

Flavia runs into his rather grubby arms.

FLAVIA
I beg of you to know me, my good lord, to accept my grief and whilst this poor wealth lasts to entertain me as your steward still.

Timon holds her at arm's length.

TIMON
Had I a steward so true, so just, and now so comfortable? It almost runs my dangerous nature mild. Let me behold thy face.
(studies her)
Methinks thou art more honest now than wise; for, by oppressing and betraying me, thou mightst have sooner got another service; for many so arrive at second masters upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true--for I must ever doubt, though never so sure--is not thy kindness subtle, covetous, if not a usuring kindness, and, as rich men deal gifts, expecting in return twenty for one?

FLAVIA
No, my worthy master, in whose breast doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late. You should have feared false times when you did feast; suspect still comes when an estate is least.
(beat, hesitantly)
That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love, duty and zeal to your unmatched mind, care of your food and living; and, believe it, my most honored lord, for any benefit that points to me, either in hope or present, I would exchange for this one wish...that you had power and wealth to requite me, by making rich yourself.

Timon stares into her face, then reaches into his dirty trash bag, pulling out money.

TIMON
Look thee, 'tis so! Here, take! The gods out of my misery have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy.

Flavia looks stunned. Timon's face turns cold.

TIMON (CONT'D)
But thus conditioned. Thou shalt build from men, hate all, curse all, show charity to none, but let the famished flesh slide from the bone, ere thou relieve the beggar. Give to dogs what thou deny'st to men. Let prisons swallow 'em, debts wither 'em to nothing; be men like blasted woods, and may diseases lick up their false bloods!
(beat)
And so farewell and thrive.

Flavia's eyes well with tears.

FLAVIA
O, let me stay...and--comfort you, my master.

TIMON
If thou hatest curses, stay not; fly, whilst thou art blest and free; never see thou man, and let me never see thee.

Flavia, empty-handed, tears on her cheeks, shakes her head as if she can't believe it, and backs away. Soon she turns and runs, Timon's red eyes upon her.
We see Flavia running through the woods, careless of where she is running, only away.

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- MOMENTS LATER
Sempronius and Ventidius are slowly cruising down the road in Sempronius' car. From his POV, we see Flavia's bike leaning against a tree.

SEMPRONIUS
As I too note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides.
They pull past the bike and park on the shoulder as Flavia bursts from the trees, grabs her bike, and cycles away, heedless of the two others. They exchange glances, and Sempronius shrugs.
They look at each other again and climb out of the car.

VENTIDIUS
What's thought of him? Does the rumor hold true, that he's so full of gold?

SEMPRONIUS
Alcibiades reports it.

VENTIDIUS
Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends.

SEMPRONIUS
Nothing else; you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore 'tis not amiss we tender loves to him, in this supposed distress of his. It will show honestly in us, and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travail for; if it be a just and true report that goes of his having.

INT. WOODS -- CONTINUOUS
We see a downcast Timon, thinking. Then he moves in the direction Flavia left.

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- CONTINUOUS
Ventidius and Sempronius are leaning against the car, planning.

VENTIDIUS
What have you now to present unto him?

SEMPRONIUS
Nothing at this time but my visitation; only I will promise an excellent piece.

VENTIDIUS
I must serve him too, tell him of an intent that's coming toward him.

SEMPRONIUS
Good as the best. Promising is the very air of the time; it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.

We see that Timon has come to the edge of the woods, and stops short, seeing the pair.

TIMON
(to himself)
Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.

VENTIDIUS
I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him. It must be a personating of himself; a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.

TIMON
(muttering)
Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.

VENTIDIUS
Nay, let's seek him; then do we sin against our own estate, when we may profit meet, and come too late.

SEMPRONIUS
True; when the day serves, before black-cornered night, find what thou want'st by free and offered light. Come.

TIMON
(to himself)
I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, that he is worshipped in a baser temple than where swine feed!

Abruptly, Timon steps out of the treeline, startling the others.

VENTIDIUS
Hail, worthy Timon!

SEMPRONIUS
Our late noble master!

TIMON
Have I once lived to see two honest men?

VENTIDIUS
Sir, having often of your open bounty tasted, hearing you were retired, your friends fallen off, whose thankless natures--o abhorred spirits!--not all the whips of heaven are large enough. What! To you, whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence to their whole being! I am rapt and cannot cover the monstrous bulk of this ingratitude with any size of words.

TIMON
Let it go naked, men may see't the better. You that are honest, by being what you are, make them best seen and known.

SEMPRONIUS
He and myself have travailed in the great shower of your gifts, and sweetly felt it. We are hither come to offer you our service.

TIMON
Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you? Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? No.

Ventidius looks uneasy.

VENTIDIUS
What we can do, we'll do, to do your service.

TIMON
Ye are honest men; ye've heard that I have gold. I am sure you have; speak truth, ye're honest men.

They stand still for a long moment. Finally:

SEMPRONIUS
(faltering)
So it is said, my noble lord. But therefore came not my friend nor I.

TIMON
Good honest men! Thou draw'st a counterfeit best in all Athens. Thou art, indeed, the best. Thou counterfeit'st most lively.

SEMPRONIUS
(mock modesty)
So so, my lord.

TIMON
Even so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction, why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth that thou art even natural in thine art. But, for all this, my honest-natured friends, I must needs say you have a little fault. Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you, neither wish I you take much pains to mend.

VENTIDIUS
(mock pleading)
Beseech your honor, make it known to us.

TIMON
You'll take it ill.

SEMPRONIUS
(ingratiating)
Most thankfully, my lord.

TIMON
Will you indeed?

VENTIDIUS
Doubt it not, worthy lord.

TIMON
There's never a one of you but trusts a knave, that mightily deceives you.

SEMPRONIUS
Do we, my lord?

TIMON
Aye, and hear him cog, see him dissemble, know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, keep in your bosom; yet remain assured that he's a made-up villain.

SEMPRONIUS
I know none such, my lord.

VENTIDIUS
Nor I.

TIMON
Look at you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, rid me these villains from your companies. Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught, confound them by some course, and come to me, I'll have you gold enough.

Both self-proclaimed artists swallow and look uneasily at each other.
Timon rustles in the dirty bag and reveals a knot of cash.
Sempronius and Ventidius look hungry, eyes popping.

SEMPRONIUS
Name them, lord!

VENTIDIUS
Let's know them!

TIMON
You that way and you this, but two in company; each man apart, all single and alone, yet an arch-villain keeps him company. If where thou art two villains shall not be, come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside but where one villain is, then him abandon. Hence, pack! There's gold; you came for gold, ye slaves!

Sempronius reaches for the money. But Timon drops the money back in the sack and reaches down for a rock, throwing it at Sempronius.

TIMON (CONT'D)
You have worked for me; there's payment for you--hence!

Timon chucks another rock at Ventidius.

TIMON (CONT'D)
You are an alchemist; make gold of that! Out, rascal dogs!

Sempronius and Ventidius try to make a grab for the bag of money as Timon starts to rain blows and kicks down on them. Fighting a lost cause, they scurry away.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens Pt. 9

In Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS, Timon's surly skater friend Apemantus tries to reason with the bitter and homeless Timon. Strong words ensue.

EXT. CITY PARK -- CONTINUOUS
We see a lot of protesters carrying on some kind of demonstration. Through gaps in the crowd, we see Apemantus in the background, watching the action. His cell phone RINGS. He fishes in his pockets and brings it to his ear. He listens.

EXT. WOODS -- LATER
We see Apemantus moving through the trees, searching. Then he stops and watches Timon digging for roots.

TIMON
Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast, teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle, whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puffed, engenders the black toad and adder blue, the gilded newt and eyeless venomed worm, with all the abhorred births below crisp heaven whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine; yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate, from forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!

He feels Apemantus' eyes upon him.

TIMON (CONT'D)
(to himself)
More man? Plague, plague!

Apemantus steps into sight.

APEMANTUS
I was directed hither; men report thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.

TIMON
'Tis, then, because thou dost not keep a dog, whom I would imitate; consumption catch thee!

APEMANTUS
This is in thee a nature but infected; a poor unmanly melancholy sprung from change of fortune. Why this spade? This place? This slave-like habit? And these looks of care? Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft; hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot that ever Timon was.

Timon just shakes his head, angrily.

APEMANTUS (CONT'D)
Shame not these woods, by putting on the cunning of a carper. Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive by that which has undone thee. Hinge thy knee, and let his very breath, who thou'lt observe, blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain, and call it excellent. Thou was told thus; thou gavest thine ears like tapsters that bid welcome to knaves and all approachers; 'tis most just that thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again, rascals should have it. Do not assume my likeness.

TIMON
Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.

APEMANTUS
Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself. A madman so long, now a fool. What, think'st that the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moss'd trees, that have outlived the eagle, page thy heels, and skip where thou point'st out? Will the cold brook, candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste, to cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures whose naked natures live in all the spite of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks, to the conflicting elements exposed, answer mere nature; bid them flatter thee. O, thou shalt find--

TIMON
(interrupts)
A fool of thee. Depart.

Apemantus looks regretful.

APEMANTUS
(softly)
I love thee better now than e'er I did.

TIMON
I hate thee worse! Why dost thou seek me out?

Apemantus looks angry.

APEMANTUS
To vex thee!

TIMON
Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Dost please thyself in't?

APEMANTUS
Aye.

TIMON
What! A knave too?

APEMANTUS
If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on to castigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou does it enforcedly. Thou'ldst courtier be again, wert thou not beggar.

Timon points, hand shaking.

TIMON
Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm with favor never clasped; but bred a dog. Why shouldst thou hate men? They never flattered thee. What has thou given? If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag, must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff to some she-beggar and compounded thee poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone! If thou hadst not been born the worst of men, thou hadst been a knave and a flatterer.

Apemantus takes this, looking at the ground. Then he looks up.

APEMANTUS
Art thou proud yet?

TIMON
Aye, that I am not thee. Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee, I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone. That the whole life of Athens were in this! Thus would I eat it.

Timon grimly munches on a root. Apemantus reaches up and snaps off a branch, then holds it out.

APEMANTUS
Here, I will mend thy feast.

TIMON
First mend my company, take away thyself.

APEMANTUS
So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine.

TIMON
'Tis not well mended so, it is but botched; if not, I would it were.

Apemantus throws the branch down and looks at Timon carefully.
APEMANTUS
What wouldst thou have to Athens?

TIMON
Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, tell them there I have gold. Look, so I have.

Apemantus follows his jutting thumb to the dirty trash bag Timon has been dragging. Apemantus slowly goes over and peers inside, registers its contents.

APEMANTUS
Here is no use for gold.

TIMON
The best and truest; for here it sleeps, and does no hired harm.

Apemantus looks around.

APEMANTUS
Where liest of nights, Timon?

TIMON
Under that's above me. Where feed'st thou o' the days, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS
Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it.

TIMON
Would poison were obedient and knew my mind!

APEMANTUS
Why wouldst thou send it?

TIMON
To sauce thy dishes.

Again Apemantus looks sadly at his friend.

APEMANTUS
The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends. When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity. In thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary.

Timon stares off into the trees.

TIMON
What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

APEMANTUS
(softly)
Give it to the beasts, to be rid of the men.

TIMON
Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts?

APEMANTUS
Aye, Timon.

TIMON
(mocking)
A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when peradventure thou wert accused by the ass; if thou wert the ass, thy dullness would torment thee, and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf; if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury; wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse; wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life; all safety were remotion and thy defense absence. What beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast? And what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation?

APEMANTUS
If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou mightst have hit upon it here; the commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

TIMON
(with mock surprise)
How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

Apemantus sizes him up.

APEMANTUS
When I know not what else to do, I'll see thee again.

TIMON
When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog than Apemantus.

Apemantus gets really mad now, and the two begin circling and pushing.

APEMANTUS
Thou art the cap of all the fools alive!

TIMON
Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!

APEMANTUS
A plague on thee! Thou art too bad to curse.

TIMON
All villains that do stand by thee are pure.

APEMANTUS
There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st.

TIMON
If I name thee, I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands!

Apemantus shoves him harder.

APEMANTUS
I would my tongue could rot them off!

Timon pushes back.

TIMON
Away, thou issue of a mangy dog! Choler does kill me that thou art alive; I swound to see thee.

APEMANTUS
Would thou wouldst burst!

TIMON
Away, thy tedious rogue! I am sorry I shall lose a stone by thee!

Timon hefts a rock and flings it at Apemantus, who ducks out of the way.

APEMANTUS
Beast!

TIMON
Slave!

APEMANTUS
Toad!

TIMON
Rogue, rogue, rogue! I am sick of this false world, and will love nought but even the mere necessities upon it. Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave; lie where the light foam from the sea may beat thy gravestone daily. Make thine epitaph, that death in me at others' lives may laugh!

APEMANTUS
Would 'twere so! Live, and love thy misery!

TIMON
Long live so, and so die!

Apemantus throws his hands up and retreats backward, staring at Timon the whole time. Before he disappears from sight, he takes the old photo of he and Timon out of his deep sagging pocket; and spears it on a limb.
Timon sees it impaled there as Apemantus exits.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens Part VIII

In this segment of TIMON OF ATHENS, Timon, now a hermit, has a chance meeting with corporate lawyer Alcibiades, and ends up helping him with his hostile takeover of Athens OS.

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- DAY
CG: ONE MONTH LATER
We see a big, sleek sedan humming down the road.

INT. ALCIBIADES' CAR -- MOMENTS LATER
Alcibiades is listening on his cell phone with it cupped between his jaw and shoulder, while scrolling down on a laptop with one hand and holding Timandra's hand with the other. She is bored, looking out the window. PHRYNIA, a sharp, all-business woman with slicked-back hair and a square-cut suit, is behind the wheel.
Suddenly there is a BUMP and the SLAP of rubber. Phrynia keeps control of the vehicle and carefully steers it to the side of the road as Alcibiades and Timandra look on with surprise and some disappointment.

EXT. WOODS -- MOMENTS LATER
We see Alcibiades and Timandra, in varying stages of impatience, watching Phrynia change a tire.
There is a flash of movement in the trees that catches Alcibiades' eye. More movement, a swatch of color; all three note it.
Something scratches at the back of Alcibiades' mind; something familiar. He moves forward, with Timandra and Phrynia falling in behind.
They thread their way through the trees, Alcibiades determined, the others more hesitant.
We see Timon ahead, looking dirty and ragged. He is pulling a large trash bag, has a rusty ax knotted in a rope around his waist, has slung a broken-handled shovel over one stooped shoulder. His t-shirt and boxers are grime-encrusted. He drops to his knees.

TIMON
O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb infect the air! Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots.

We see Timon rooting around in the earth with shovel and blade.

TIMON (CONT'D)
Come, damned earth, thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds among the route of nations, I will make thee do thy right nature.

Alcibiades tentatively comes into the clearing where Timon crouches.

ALCIBIADES
What art thou there? Speak.

Timon turns away.

TIMON
A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart, for showing me again the eyes of man!

ALCIBIADES
What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee, that art thyself a man?

TIMON
I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind. For thy part, I do wish thou art a dog, that I might love thee something.

Alcibiades looks more closely. Phrynia tries to shield Alcibiades a bit.

ALCIBIADES
I know thee well; but in thy fortunes am unlearned and strange.

TIMON
I know thee too; and more than that I know thee, I not desire to know. Follow thy drum; with man's blood paint the ground.
(points to Phrynia)
This fell whore of thine hath in her more destruction than thy sword, for all her cherubim look.

Phrynia looks on coldly.

PHRYNIA
Thy lips rot off!

TIMON
I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns to thine own lips again.

Alcibiades counsels Phrynia to calm down with a gesture, then turns on Timon, fascinated.

ALCIBIADES
How come the noble Timon to this change?

TIMON
As the moon does, by wanting light to give; but then renew I could not, like the moon. There were no suns to borrow of.

Alcibiades is stunned.

ALCIBIADES
Noble Timon, what friendship may I do thee?

Timon pretends to think.

TIMON
Promise me friendship, but perform none. If thou wilt promise, the gods plague thee, for thou art a man! If thou dots perform, confound thee, for thou art a man!

ALCIBIADES
I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.

TIMON
Thou saw'st them, when I had prosperity.

ALCIBIADES
I see them now; then was a blessed time.

TIMON
As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.

Timandra looks Timon up and down, then looks at Alcibiades, a light dawning.

TIMANDRA
Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world voiced so regardfully?

TIMON
Art thou Timandra?

TIMANDRA
Yes.

TIMON
Be a whore still; they love thee not that use thee; give them diseases, leaving them with thee their lust.

Timandra looks repulsed.

TIMANDRA
Hang thee, monster!

Alcibiades touches his girlfriend's shoulder.
ALCIBIADES

Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits are drowned and lost in his calamities.
(to Timon)
I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, the want whereof doth daily make revolt in my penurious band. I have heard, and grieved, how cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth, forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbor states, but for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them--

TIMON
I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone.

ALCIBIADES
I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon.

TIMON
How dost thou pity him whom thou ­dost trouble? I had rather be alone.
Alcibiades looks him over again, then SIGHS. He fishes in an inner pocket and produces a fat wallet.

ALCIBIADES
Why, fare thee well. Here is some gold for thee.

Timon dismisses him.

TIMON
Keep it, I cannot eat it.

Alcibiades shakes his head, looking grim, and puts his wallet away.

ALCIBIADES
When I have laid proud Athens on a heap--

Timon perks up.

TIMON
Warr'st thou against Athens?

ALCIBIADES
(nodding at Timon's state)
Ay, Timon, and have cause.

TIMON
The gods confound them all in thy conquest; and thee after, when thou ­hast conquered!

ALCIBIADES
Why me, Timon?

TIMON
That, by killing of villains, thou was born to conquer my country.

Timon starts to root around in his dirty trash bag, and surprisingly comes out with two fistfuls of cash.
He starts pushing wads of money at a shocked Alcibiades.

TIMON (CONT'D)
Put up thy gold. Go on--here's gold--go on. Be as a planetary plague, when Jove will over some high-viced city hang his poison in the sick air. Let not thy sword skip one. Pity not honored age for his white beard; he is an usurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron; it is her habit only that is honest, herself's a bawd. Let not the virgin's cheek make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-paps, that through the window-bars bore at men's eyes, are not within the leaf of pity writ, but set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the babe, whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy; think it a bastard, whom the oracle hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut, and mince it sans remorse. Swear against object, put armor on thine ears and on thine eyes, whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding, shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay soldiers; make large confusion; and, thy fury spent, confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone.

Alcibiades looks surprised, then looks resolved, his eyes cunning.

ALCIBIADES
Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou givest me, not all thy counsel.

Timon grabs out another few handfuls and shoves it at Alcibiades. Timandra looks on with interest.

TIMANDRA
More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.

TIMON
More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest.

Alcibiades touches her elbow, and looks at Phrynia.

ALCIBIADES
Strike up the drums towards Athens!
(to Timon)
Farewell, Timon; If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again.

TIMON
If I hope well, I'll never see thee more.

Alcibiades looks distraught.

ALCIBIADES
I never did thee harm.

TIMON
Yes, thy spokest well of me.

ALCIBIADES
Call'st thou that harm?

TIMON
Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take thy beagles with thee.

ALCIBIADES
(to the others)
We but offend him. Strike!

They move away, Timon glaring in their wake.

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- MOMENTS LATER
Phrynia pulls the car off of the shoulder and back onto the road.

INT. ALCIBIADES' CAR -- CONTINUOUS
In the roomy back seat, we see Alcibiades musing. He fishes out a PDA, and thumbs through it. Finding what he is looking for, he dials a number on his cell.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens Part VII

The dotcom bubble bursts in this installment of TIMON OF ATHENS. It was actually very common for the actor playing Timon to strip to his skivvies, as depicted here, during his return to nature.

EXT. STREETS -- LATER
We see Timon's sportscar tearing through the streets.

INT. TIMON'S CAR -- CONTINUOUS
He tilts the rearview mirror so that he can see the skyline retreating behind him.

TIMON
Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall, that girdlest in those wolves, dire of the earth, and fence not Athens!

EXT. COUNTRY ROADS -- LATER
Timon is leaving the city behind. Gradually we see his car slow, then pull over to the shoulder and stop.
Timon gets out, dejected, loosening his tie. He flings it off into the bush.
He hits the unlock button on his keys, and his trunk springs open.
From his POV, we see changes of clothes, his laptop, a tennis racquet, all the detritus of a full high-powered life.
He starts stripping down and throwing his dress clothes into the trunk, eventually leaving a t-shirt and boxers.

TIMON
Plagues, incident to men, your potent and infectious fevers heap on Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica, cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt as lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, that 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, and drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains, sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop be general leprosy! Breath infect breath, at their society, as their friendship, may merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee, but nakedness, thou detestable town! Take thou that too, with multiplying bans! Timon will to the woods; where he shall find the unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. The gods confound--hear me, you good gods all--the Athenians both within and out that wall! And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow to the whole race of mankind, high and low!
(beat, bitterly)
Amen.

We see Timon striding away, into a red sunset.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (ANTEROOM) -- DAY
We SMASH CUT to a full-screen CG with a techno news backbeat under it. The screen reads: CEO FIRED, MISSING and features a photo of Timon. Then the image WIPES to a photo of Alcibiades, looking serious, and the CG: HOSTILE TAKEOVER?
The graphic pushes into a box over the shoulder of Philotus, who is getting ready to give a report.
But the screen goes to BLACK, abruptly.
We CUT WIDE and see that Flavia has unplugged the little TV on her desk. She is packing up her stuff in a cardboard box.
Servilius and Flaminius poke their heads in. Each of them is carrying a load of their junk.

SERVILIUS
Hear you, master steward, where's our master? Are we undone? Cast off? Nothing remaining?

FLAVIA
Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you? Let me be recorded by the righteous gods, I am as poor as you.

SERVILIUS
Such a house broke!

Flavia grabs her box and joins them.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (HALLWAY) -- CONTINUOUS
Flavia, Servilius, and Flaminius walk down a desolate hall. Some files have spilled out into the hall, and many monitors are dark.

FLAMINIUS
All broken implements of a ruined house.

SERVILIUS
Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery, that I see by our faces. We are fellows still, serving alike in sorrow. Leak'd is our bark, and we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck.
Flavia stops.

FLAVIA
Good fellows all, the latest of my wealth I'll share among you. Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake, let's yet be fellows. Let's shake our heads, and say, as 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes, 'We have seen better days.'

Flavia roots in her purse. The others protest.

FLAVIA (CONT'D)
Let each take some. Nay, put our your hands. Not one word more; thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

She gives them both a few bills. They clasp hands, embrace, part ways.

EXT. TIMON'S OFFICE BUILDING -- CONTINUOUS
Flavia exits the building and puts her belongings in the little basket. She starts to unlock her bike, and looks back up at the building.

FLAVIA
O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us! Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt, since riches point to misery and contempt? Who would be so mocked in glory? Or to live in but a dream of friendship? To have his pomp and all what state compounds but only painted, like his varnished friends? Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart, undone by goodness. Strange, unusual blood, when man's worst sin is, he does too much good! Who, then, dares to be half so kind again? For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men. My dearest lord, blessed, to be most accursed, rich, only to be wretched, thy great fortunes are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord! He's flung in rage from this ungrateful seat of monstrous friends, nor has he with him to supply his life, or that which can command it. I'll follow and inquire him out. I'll ever serve his mind with my best will; whilst I have gold, I'll be his steward still.

Resolved, Flavia cycles away.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens Pt. 6

In this installment of my modern dress, original prose version of Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS, a down-and-out Timon finally busts a proverbial cap in the asses of his false friends.



EXT. TIMON'S HOUSE -- EVENING
A pretty sunset behind Timon's house. We see guests arriving.
A more vociferous clot of reporters are hustling around the perimeter. Lucullus goes by with his coat over his face, but others, like Ventidius, are being interviewed.
We see Lucius running the gauntlet and taking it all in.

INT. TIMON'S HOUSE (LIVING ROOM) -- MOMENTS LATER
Lucius strolls in and spots Sempronius.


SEMPRONIUS
The good time of day to you, sir.


LUCIUS
I also wish it to you. I think this honorable lord did but try us this other day.
Sempronius looks around, then leans in conspiratorally.


SEMPRONIUS
Upon that were my thoughts tiring, when we encountered. I hope it is not so low with him as he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.


LUCIUS
It should not be, by the persuasion of his new feasting.


SEMPRONIUS
(airily)
I should think so. He hath sent me an earnest inviting, which many my near occasions did urge me to put off. But he hath conjured me beyond them, and I must needs appear.


LUCIUS
In like manner was I in debt to my importunate business, but he would not hear my excuse. I am sorry, when he sent to borrow of me, that my provision was out.


SEMPRONIUS
(oily)
I am sick of that grief too, as I understand how all things go.


LUCIUS
Every man here's so.


Timon appears at the door to the dining room, beaming.


TIMON
With all my heart, gentlemen both; and how fare you?


LUCIUS
Ever at the best, hearing well of your lordship.


SEMPRONIUS
The swallow follows not summer more willing than we follow your lordship.


Timon looks like he's ready to say something, but instead ushers them in.

INT. TIMON'S HOUSE (DINING ROOM) -- CONTINUOUS
Lucius and Sempronius soon meet Lucullus, Ventidius, and others, coming in on their heels. All are met as hearty fellows.
Sempronius claps eyes on the elaborate silver-domed dishes at every place, and touches Timon's arm, a greasy smile on his face.


SEMPRONIUS
I hope it remains not unkindly with your lordship that I returned you an empty messenger.


TIMON
O, sir, let it not trouble you.


Lucius looks a little embarrassed.


LUCIUS
My lord--


TIMON
Ah, my good friend, what cheer?


LUCIUS
My most honorable lord, I am even sick of shame, that, when your lordship this other day sent to me, I was unfortunate a beggar.


TIMON
Think not on it, sir.


LUCIUS
Had you been but two hours before--


TIMON
Let it not cumber your better remembrance.


Timon takes his place at the head of the table.


TIMON (CONT'D)
Come, bring in all together!


Everyone gets a good look at the silver-covered dish waiting at every chair.


SEMPRONIUS
All covered dishes!


He eagerly takes his seat.


Lucius slips into the chair next to Ventidius.


LUCIUS
Royal cheer, I warrant you.


VENTIDIUS
Doubt not that, if money and the season can yield it.


Sempronius leans over, in an exagerrated pose of confidentiality.


SEMPRONIUS
How do you? What's the news?


VENTIDIUS
Alcibiades is banished; hear you of it?


SEMPRONIUS
(eyes round)
Alcibiades banished!


VENTIDIUS
'Tis so, be sure of it.


LUCIUS
How? How?


SEMPRONIUS
I pray you, upon what?


Timon looks narrowly down the table, but then smiles again.


TIMON
My friends, will you draw near?


VENTIDIUS
(quietly)
I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feast toward.


Timon stands.


TIMON
Each man to his stool, with that spur as he would to the lip of his mistress; your diet shall be in all places alike.
(beat)
The gods require our thanks.


Everyone bows their heads.


TIMON (CONT'D)
You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves be praised; but reserve still to give, lest your deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another; for, were your godheads to borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make the meat be beloved more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains. If there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be--as they are. The rest of your feed, O gods--the senators of Athens, together with the common lag of people--what is amiss in them, you gods, make suitable for destruction. For these my present friends, as they are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing they are welcome.


Everyone has dropped their jovial masks, begun looking sicker, and more scared and uncomfortable, as Timon builds a head of steam. He looks around the table, eyes gleaming, teeth bared.


TIMON (CONT'D)
Uncover, dogs, and lap.


Slowly, carefully, everyone reveals their covered plates.
From various POVs we see bowls filled with water, and a stone in the center of each one.
Sempronius' jaw swings open.


SEMPRONIUS
What does his lordship mean?


LUCULLUS
I know not.


Timon's cold fury is turned on them.


TIMON
May you a better feast never behold, you knot of mouth-friends! Smoke and lukewarm water is your perfection! This is Timon's last; who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries, washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces your reeking villainy!
Timon overturns bowls and splashes his guests. They begin to jump from their seats, stunned.
Live loathed and long, most smiling, smooth, detested parasites, courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears...you fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies, cap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute-jacks! Of man and beast the infinite malady crust you quite over!


Sempronius SHRIEKS in terror. Everyone heads for the doors, as Timon begins to throw rocks, bowls, plates, utensils, everything.


TIMON
What, dost thou go? Soft! Take thy physic first--thou too--and thou--stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none!


Timon pursues them.

INT. TIMON'S HOUSE (LIVING ROOM) -- CONTINUOUS
Everyone is scattering under Timon's assault.


TIMON
What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast, where at a villain's not a welcome guest!


Timon is alone. He raises his fists and closes his eyes.


TIMON (CONT'D)
Burn, home! Sink, Athens! Henceforth hated be of Timon man and all humanity!
He drops to his knees, consumed with his rage.

EXT. TIMON'S HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS
A handful of shocked guests remain, stumbling around.


LUCIUS
How now, my lords!


SEMPRONIUS
(sniffling)
Know you the quality of Timon's fury?


VENTIDIUS
Push!
(beat)
Did you see my cap?


LUCULLUS
I have lost my gown.


SEMPRONIUS
He's but a mad lord, and nought but humor sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat.
(beat)
Did you see my jewel?


LUCULLUS
Here lies my gown.


LUCIUS
Let's make no stay.


SEMPRONIUS
Lord Timon's mad!


VENTIDIUS
I feel it upon my bones.


LUCULLUS
One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.


Suddenly Timon's car comes ROARING past. They all watch it peel out, and he is gone.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens Pt. 5

This is some of my favorite work in my modern dress original prose version of Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS. First I took a big chunk of Greek Chorus exposition and made it into a television piece to give it a little oomph (plus using the b-movie trick of getting a lot of little cameos without the rest of the cast around); then you see corporate lawyer Alcibiades, who was a general in the original version, and his fight with the Board of Directors. I thought his argument with the Board of Directors (the Athens town fathers in the original), and his threat to return in battle, was perfect for the corporate takeover scenario seen further on, as the attitudes are, curiously, the same, methinks.


INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (INNER SANCTUM) -- CONTINUOUS
Timon looks out the window, gravely.
From his POV, we see the cameras massing outside, already interviewing Caphis, Titus, and Hortensius.

TIMON
What, are my doors opposed against my passage? Have I been ever free, and must my house be my retentive enemy, my gaol? The place which I have feasted, does it now, like all mankind, show me an iron heart?

Timon strides across the room and turns on the large plasma screen he has mounted there.
Instantly, he sees a graphic reading "ATHENS-OS" and showing the jagged downward line on a graph that indicates a plummeting stock. Timon looks stunned.

TIMON (CONT'D)
Cleave me to the girdle.

Next, he sees LACHES in his office. CG: Laches, Bank of Lacedaemon

LACHES
(on TV)
Mine, fifty talents.

TIMON
Cut my heart in sums.

Next we see another man in his office, THRASYCLES. CG: Thrasycles, Samos Venture Capitalist Group

THRASYCLES
(on TV)
Five thousand crowns, my lord.

TIMON
Five thousand drops pays that!

Now we see Caphis, in front of the building. CG: Caphis, Assistant to the Board of Directors, Athens-OS

CAPHIS
(on TV)
Faith, I perceive our masters may throw their caps at their money. Those debts may well be called desperate ones, for a madman owes 'em.

Timon watches, steely-eyed.

TIMON
Tear me, take me; let the gods fall upon you!

Flavia appears at his shoulder, tentatively. He notices her there, then turns back to the TV.

TIMON (CONT'D)
They have even put my breath from me, the slaves. Creditors? Devils!

FLAVIA
My dear lord--

TIMON
What if it should be so?

FLAVIA
My lord--

TIMON
I'll have it so.

He turns back to Flavia.

TIMON (CONT'D)
Go, bid all my friends again, Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius; all, sirrah, all. I'll once more feast the rascals.

Flavia looks shocked.

FLAVIA
O my lord, you only speak from your distracted soul. There is not so much left, to furnish out a moderate table.

TIMON
Be it not in thy care. Go, I charge thee, invite them all. Let the tide of knaves once more, my cook and I'll provide.

He turns his attention back to the TV as Flavia tries to take this news in.

EXT. STREETS -- CONTINUOUS
We see the TV images full-screen, a series of interviews. First is PHILIADES.

PHILIADES
Who, the Lord Timon? He is my very good friend, and an honorable gentleman.

Next we see HOSTILIUS.

HOSTILIUS
We know him for no less, though we are but strangers to him. But I can tell you one thing. My lord, and which I hear from common rumors, now Lord Timon's happy hours are done and past, and his estate shrinks from him.

Next, Alcibiades, pushing cameras away. CG: Alcibiades, CFO, Athens-OS

ALCIBIADES
Fie, no, do not believe it; he cannot want for money.

Next we see TISAPHERNES, walking down the sidewalk.

TISAPHERNES
But believe you this, my lord, that, not long ago, one of his men was with the Lord Lucullus to borrow so many talents, nay, urged extremely for it and showed what necessity belonged to it, and yet was denied.

PHILOTUS (O.S.)
How?

TISAPHERNES
I tell you, denied, my lord.

Then Tisaphernes picks up the pace and is gone.

We see Servilius, in front of his own apartment building. CG: Servilius, HelpDesk Support, Athens-OS

SERVILIUS
What a strange case was that! Now, before the gods, I am ashamed on it. Denied that honorable man! There was very little honor showed in it.

Next is Demeas, at a podium, making an official press statement. CG: Demeas, Legal Counsel, Athens-OS

DEMEAS
I wonder on it; he was wont to shine at seven.

Next we see PHILOTUS, a serious but perfectly coifed reporter, doing a stand-up in the busy streets. CG: Philotus, First Folio News

PHILOTUS
Ay, but the days are waxed shorter with him. You must consider that a prodigal course is like the sun's. But not, like his, recoverable. I fear 'tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse; that one may reach deep enough, and yet find little.

We see the screen dip to BLACK, as if the TV was shut off.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (BOARDROOM) -- CONTINUOUS
Alcibiades steps away from turning off the television that the somber boardroom is watching. We see Varro, Isidore, Demeas, and other angry or worried faces looking back at Alcibiades, with assistants like Caphis, Hortensius, and Titus lurking in the background. This is the board of directors of Athens-OS, and they have seen better days.

VARRO
My lord, you have my voice to it; The fault's bloody; 'tis necessary he should die. Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

DEMEAS
Most true; the law shall bruise him.

ALCIBIADES
I am a humble suitor to your virtues; for pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly. It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy upon a friend of mine, who, in hot blood, hath stepped into the law, which is past depth to those that, without heed, do plunge into it.

VARRO
You undergo too strict a paradox, striving to make an ugly deed look fair. He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer the worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs his outsides, to wear them like his rainment, carelessly, and never prefer his injuries to heart, to bring it into danger.

ALCIBIADES
My lord--

VARRO
You cannot make gross sins look clear.

ALCIBIADES
I say, my lords, he has done fair service, and slain in fight many of your enemies.

DEMEAS
He has made too much plenty with them; he's a sworn rioter. He has a sin that often drowns him, and takes his valor prisoner. His days are foul and his drink dangerous.
Alcibiades can't believe what he's hearing, and grows more angry by the moment.

ALCIBIADES
Hard fate!
(beat, thinks)
My lords, if not for any part of him--though his right arm might purchase his own time and be in debt to none--yet, more to move you, take my deserts to his, and join them both. And, for I know your reverend ages love security, I'll pawn my victories, all honors to you, upon his good returns.

DEMEAS
We are for law; he dies. Urge it no more, on height of our displeasure.

ALCIBIADES
Must it be so? It must not be. My lords, I do beseech you, know me.
Isidore finally leans forward, her fingers steepled.

ISIDORE
How?

ALCIBIADES
Call me to your remembrances.

ISIDORE
What!

She leans back.

ALCIBIADES
I cannot think but your age has forgot me. It could not else be, I should prove so base, to sue, and be denied such common grace. My wounds ache at you.

VARRO
Do you dare our anger? 'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect.
(beat)
We banish thee forever.

Alcibiades SLAMS the table.

ALCIBIADES
Banish me? Banish your dotage, banish usury, that makes the senate ugly.

VARRO
If after two days' shine, Athens contain thee, attend our weightier judgment.

Alcibiades stares around the table, looking each person full in the face. Then he snaps his briefcase shut and, with a curt nod, storms out.

An uncomfortable silence follows, as the board looks at each other.

INT. TIMON'S OFFICE (HALLWAY) -- MOMENTS LATER
Alcibiades stalks down the hall, his face clouded with fury. We see workers dodging out of his way as Alcibiades suddenly puts foot to handy trash can, shredded documents flying.

ALCIBIADES
(to himself)
Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live only in bone, that none may look on you! I'm worse than mad; I have kept back their foes, while they have told their money and let out their coin upon large interest, I myself rich only in large hurts. All those for this? Banishment! It comes not ill. I hate not to be banished, it is a cause worthy my spleen and fury, that I may strike at Athens. I'll cheer up my discontented troops, and lay for hearts. 'Tis honor with most lands to be at odds; soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods.

He walks out of frame.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Timon of Athens, Pt. 4

In this installment of Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS, Timon's most trusted helpdesk employees go out to try and rustle up some money to get Timon's dotcom out of hot water, to no avail. I used one of my favorite exchanges from TITUS ANDRONICUS for the soap opera that Lucullus is watching on TV.

EXT. LUCULLUS' APARTMENT BUILDING -- LATER
Servilius looks up at the building, and checks the box tucked under his arm.

INT. LUCULLUS' APARTMENT -- MOMENTS LATER
Lucullus is working out and watching soaps on TV.

DEMETRIUS
(on TV)
Villain, what hast thou done?

AARON
(on TV)
That which thou canst not undo.

DEMETRIUS
(on TV)
Thou hast undone our mother.

AARON
(on TV)
Villain, I have done thy mother.

The doorbell rings, and Lucullus reluctantly tears himself away.
He opens it to see Servilius studying him.

LUCULLUS
One of Lord Timon's men? A gift, I warrant. Why, this hits right. I dreamt of a silver basin and ewer tonight. Servilius, honest Servilius; you are very respectively welcome, sir.

Servilius comes in and takes a cool look around.

LUCULLUS (CONT'D)
And how does that honorable, complete, free-hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord and master?

SERVILIUS
His health is well, sir.

LUCULLUS
I am right glad that his health is well, sir. And what hast thou there under thy cloak?

SERVILIUS
Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir. Which, in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your honor to supply; who, having great and instant occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your lordship to furnish him, nothing doubting your present assistance therein.

Lucullus goes to fetch a pair of beers from the fridge. His face shows the strain of his mind calculating.

LUCULLUS
'Nothing doubting,' says he? Alas, good lord! A noble gentleman 'tis, if he would not keep so good a house. Many a time and often I have dined with him, and told him on it, and come again to supper to him, of purpose to have him spend less, and yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning by my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.

He hands a bottle to Servilius.

LUCULLUS (CONT'D)
I have noted thee always wise. Here's to thee.

Servilius just sits the bottle down.

SERVILIUS
Your lordship speaks your pleasure.

Lucullus takes a long pull.

LUCULLUS
Draw nearer, honest Servilius. Thy lord's a bountiful gentleman. But thou art wise, and thou knowest well enough, although thou comest to me, that this is no time to lend money, especially upon bare friendship, without security.

Lucullus pulls out his wallet, and idly thumbs off a few bills.

LUCULLUS (CONT'D)
Here's three solidares for thee. Good boy, wink at me, and say thou sawest me not.
(beat)
Fare thee well.

Servilius looks for a moment; then smacks the money out of Lucullus' hand.

LUCULLUS (CONT'D)
Ha! Now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy master!

Servilius grabs him by the throat and slams him against the wall.

SERVILIUS
May these add to the number that may scald thee! Let molten coin be thy damnation! Thou disease of a friend, and not himself!

Servilius lets Lucullus go, and the two stare at each other for a moment before Servilius stalks out.

EXT. LUCIUS' HOME -- LATER
Flaminius pulls up and sees Lucius washing his car, a boombox playing nearby.
Lucius waves agreeably.


LUCIUS
Flaminius! You are kindly met, sir. Fare thee well.


FLAMINIUS
May it please your honor, my lord has sent--


Lucius stops working.


LUCIUS
Ha! What has he sent? I am so much endeared to that lord; he's ever sending. How shall I thank him, thinkest thou? And what has he sent now?


FLAMINIUS
He only sent his present occasion now, my lord; requesting your lordship to supply his instant use with so many talents.


LUCIUS
I know his lordship is but merry with me.


FLAMINIUS
If his occasion were not virtuous, I should not urge it half so faithfully.


Lucius seems shocked.


LUCIUS
Dost thou speak seriously, Flaminius?


FLAMINIUS
Upon my soul, 'tis true, sir.


Lucius thinks a moment, wiping off his hands with a rag. Then he smiles.


LUCIUS
What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish myself against such a good time, when I might have shown myself honorable! How unluckily it happened, that I should purchase the day before for a little part, and undo a great deal of honored! Flaminius, before the gods, I am not able to do. Commend me bountifully to his good lordship; and I hope his honor will conceive the fairest of me, because I have no power to be kind. Good Flaminius, will you befriend me so far, as to use mine own words to him?


Flaminius takes in the new car, the electronics, the nice clothes, with an eyebrow raised.


FLAMINIUS
Yes, sir, I...shall.


LUCIUS
I'll look you out a good turn, Flaminius.


Lucius goes right back to work. After a moment of dumfounded silence, Flaminius trudges back to his car.

INT. SEMPRONIUS' STUDIO -- LATER
Flavia stands and watches Sempronius stab somewhat ineffectually at a canvas. He barely glances over his shoulder at her.


SEMPRONIUS
Must he need trouble me in it, above all others? He might have tried Lord Lucius or Lucullus; and now Ventidius is wealthy too, whom he redeemed from prison. All these owe their estates unto him.


FLAVIA
My lord, they have all been touched, and found base metal, for they have all denied him.


Now Sempronius seems more interested.


SEMPRONIUS
How! Have they denied him? Has Ventidius and Lucullus denied him? And does he send to me? Three? Hum! It shows but little love or judgment in him. Must I be his last refuge! I'm angry at him, that might have known my place. I see no sense for it, but his occasion might have wooed me first. For, in my conscience, I was the first man that ever received gift from him. And does he think so backwardly of me now, that I'll requite its last?
(beat)
No. So it may prove an argument of laughter to the rest, and amongst lords I be thought a fool. I'd rather than the worth of thrice the sum, had he sent to me first, but for my mind's sake; I'd such a courage to do him good. But now return, and with their faint reply this answer join; who bates mine honor shall not know my coin.


FLAVIA
(snarling)
Excellent! Your lordship's a goodly villain!


She storms out.

EXT. SEMPRONIUS' APARTMENT -- MOMENTS LATER
Flavia's bike is leaning against a light pole. She grabs it, gets on, then thinks a moment.


FLAVIA
This was my lord's best hope; now all are fled, save only the gods.


She puts her foot on the pedal and takes off.


EXT. TIMON'S OFFICE BUILDING -- LATER
Caphis and two other assistants, HORTENSIUS and TITUS, are lounging outside Timon's building when they see Apemantus handing out leaflets nearby.


CAPHIS
Stay, stay, here comes Apemantus; let's have some sport with him.


HORTENSIUS
Hang him, he'll abuse us.


TITUS
A plague upon him, dog!


Caphis sidles up to Apemantus.


CAPHIS
How dost, fool?


APEMANTUS
Dost dialogue with thy shadow?


Caphis butts chests with him.



CAPHIS
Where's the fool now?


Apemantus butts back.


APEMANTUS
He last asked the question. Poor rogues, and usurers' men! Bawds between gold and want!


Hortensius steps up.


HORTENSIUS
What are we, Apemantus?


APEMANTUS
Asses.


HORTENSIUS
Why?


APEMANTUS
That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves.


Titus steps up.


TITUS
How dost thou, Apemantus?


APEMANTUS
Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou't die a bawd.


TITUS
Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog's death. Answer not; I am gone.


Titus slinks back to the wall.


APEMANTUS
Even so thou outrunnest grace.


Apemantus looks around. Caphis looks on with hooded eyes, observing Titus' loss of face.


CAPHIS
Thou art not altogether a fool.


APEMANTUS
Nor thou altogether a wise man; as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest.


Apemantus pushes past Caphis and Hortensius and strolls away. The two assistants go back to leaning against the wall, with Titus.


Flaminius arrives on foot. They lift themselves up from where they were leaning.


CAPHIS
(to Hortensius)
Lord Timon's man.
(to Flaminius)
Sir, a word; pray, is my lord ready to come forth?


FLAMINIUS
No, indeed he is not.


CAPHIS
We attend his lordship; pray, signify so much.


FLAMINIUS
I need not tell him that; he knows you are too diligent.


Flaminius disappears inside. Caphis looks at Hortensius and shrugs.
Next they see Servilius coming across the street, taking them both in.


HORTENSIUS
O, here's Servilius; now we shall know some answers.


SERVILIUS
If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to repair some other hour, I should derive much from it; for, take it of my soul, my lord leans wondrously to discontent; his comfortable temper has forsook him; he's much out of health, and keeps his chamber.


CAPHIS
Many do keep their chambers are not sick; and, if it be so far beyond his health, methinks he should the sooner pay his debts, and make a clear way to the gods.


SERVILIUS
(bitterly)
Good gods!


TITUS
We cannot take this for an answer, sir.


Servilius stares them down as he goes past.


A moment later they spot Flavia cycling towards them. She sees them as well, but ignores them and chains her bike up. Hortensius glances at Caphis, then steps up.


HORTENSIUS
By your leave--


Flavia still looks flushed and angry.


FLAVIA
What do ye ask of me, my friend?


HORTENSIUS
We wait for certain money here.


FLAVIA
Aye, if money were as certain as your waiting, 'twere sure enough. Why then preferred you not your sums and bills, when your false masters eat of my lord's meat? Then they could smile and fawn upon his debts and take down the interest into their gluttonous maws. You do yourselves but wrong to stir me up; let me pass quietly.


HORTENSIUS
Aye, but this answer will not serve.


FLAVIA
If 'twill not serve, 'tis not so base as you; for you serve knaves.


Caphis looks on coldly from where he reclines against the wall.


CAPHIS
No matter what; he's poor, and that's revenge enough. Who can speak broader than he that has no house to put his head in? Such may rail against great buildings.


Caphis looks over Flavia's shoulder. She turns and sees several CAMERA CREWS hurrying down the sidewalk towards them.


Flavia ducks her head and slips inside.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.