the play, the ultimate redeemer of iniquitous Athens. He would have been known among the educated of the audience for his presence at the Greek banquet in Plato's Symposium at which he gets the last word on the nature of love, proposing that it cannot be found in superficial appearance. Performance history Performance history in Shakespeare's lifetime is unknown, though the same is also true of his more highly regarded plays such as Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, which most scholars believe were written in the same period. The earliest known performance of the straight Shakespearean text was at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin in 1761. The earliest-known production of a predominantly Shakespearean version of the play in the United Kingdom was at Sadler's Wells in 1851. It has played once on Broadway, at the Lyceum Theatre in 1993, with Brian Bedford in the title role. This was a production of The Public Theater, which revived the play in February 2011 with Richard Thomas in the lead role, citing it as a play for the Great Recession. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater first staged the play in 1997. It was the company's first modern-dress production. In April 2012, C.S.T. again staged the play with the Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid playing Timon. The play was given a new ending by director Barbara Gaines. In August 2011, the Hudson Shakespeare Company of New Jersey staged Timon of Athens as part of their summer Shakespeare in the Parks series. As a departure from several other modern dress productions, director Jon Ciccarelli set the action in the "Roaring 20s" with corrupt politicians, mobsters and making the characters of Alcibiades, Timon of Athens and Flavius veterans of World War I. Timon (Imran Sheikh) was portrayed as a 'Great Gatsby' type figure who loses his great fortune to corrupt "friends". In July 2012 the British National Theatre produced a version of the play set in modern dress and in the present time of scandal and fraud in the City of London and the British media. The play was directed by Nicholas Hytner. The National Theatre production was broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on 1 November 2012 as part of the National Theatre Live programme. From 7 December 2018 to 22 February 2019 the play was revived by the Royal Shakespeare Company in a version directed by Simon Godwin, also in modern dress and featuring contemporary visual allusions,