Sun. June 13

For the past six seasons, Actors’ Shakespeare Project has been refreshing and even reinventing the theater scene in Boston (and beyond) with their open-thought productions of some of the Bard’s best and least known plays. From a “Lear” that invaded New York and conquered to a “Hamlet” that used the stage for the seating area and the seating area for the stage, the creative company wends its way all around the city, leaving amazed audiences in its wake and then inviting them to come along for the next season.

To finish their sixth year, the ASP has chosen to sting with “Timon of Athens,” the story of a overly-generous Greek lord who finds himself at a loss when he falls on hard times. Combining elements of “Lear” (financial ruin via donation that leads to self-banishment and potential madness), “Merchant of Venice” (usury and trading blood for money) and “Hamlet” (advice about lending), among other self-referential Shakespearean stories, “Timon” is rooted in Ancient Greece yet has a story and a lesson that are p[painfully contemporary. And while ASP actors often address the audience directly and emphasize the lines and lessons that may ring most true today (“Now is not a time to lend,” says John Kuntz’s Ventidius), the morals do not overpower or overshadow the stark sets, clever costume conventions and powerful performances.

 In addition to Eliot Norton-winner Kuntz (who, even in just a white painter’s suit and a black beret, wrings every once of color out of his lines, regardless of which of his four roles he is embodying), “Timon” also features ASP Artistic Director Allyn Burrows in the title role, Will Lyman as the crankily caring House-man Apemantus who, like Lear’s Fool, follow Timon out into nature when the city can no longer hold them, Daniel Berger-Jones as Alcibiades, the passionate soldier who stands for the ways of the warrior and against false leaders who would punish the protectors (sounds familiar?), and the tiny giant Bobbie Steinbach as the oft-ignored accountant turned maternal monitor Flavius, whose scolding sermons on spending linger long after the extended applause dies down. Backing the audience (for the first half of the play anyway) is a vast stylized piece of art that, like many of the character’s costumes, changes from stark monochrome to bright colors (and then back again). Flanking the collapsing stage are clothing racks from which the many multi-roled actors take their wardrobes (much as ASP did with the on-stage hat racks from “Love’s Labor’s Lost”). Musically, the play ranges from dull drums and sinister shakers to beer hall choruses, drowsy drunken dances and barbershop ballads, many of which are performed by the actors themselves.

Though Timon’s act-ending entreaty literally brings the house down, it is far from the only powerful piece of this performance. The contrasts of color and character and chorus combine with the lyrical and lesson-filled lines to make a staging that impresses from start to finish.

The run wraps up today, Sunday June 13 with shows at 3 and 8.
Tickets: $47-$25.

(Contributed by Matt Robinson)

15 Channel St., 617-811-4111 www.actorsshakespeareproject.org