By: David de Young
Written by Austin Pendleton
Directed by Matt Sciple
Run time: approximately 140 minutes with a 15 minute intermission
-- Orson Welles speaking about Ken Tynan in Orson’s Shadow: “He likes to spank beautiful women. That is why he became a critic.”
When Gremlin Theater announced their production of Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow, a play that includes as characters Orson Welles, Vivienne Leigh, Kenneth Tynan, Lawrence Olivier and Joan Plowright, I pretty much had no choice but to see it.
Though I’m surely not the only Twin Citian who counts Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane and the The Magnificent Ambersons among their favorite films, I may be one of the few whose father’s doctoral thesis was on Kenneth Tynan. (While my dad finished up his studies on the British theater critic in the early 1970s it almost seemed like Tynan was a member of the family for a while, and I’m sure my mother who typed and re-typed drafts of that dissertation would agree.) This is just to say I don’t recall ever not knowing who Tynan was, and that likely puts me in a small minority.
Additionally, I’ve had a small obsession with Vivienne Leigh over the years, convinced that when she accepted the Academy Award for Gone With The Wind in 1939 it made for one of the most beautiful pieces of film footage in the 20th Century. Gremlin Theater’s announcement that Orson’s Shadow would debut at the Loading Dock Theater on February 15th had me at Welles, Tynan and Leigh; Olivier and Plowright were icing on the cake.
After a 10 minute montage of some of the main film work of Welles, Olivier, Leigh and Plowright prior to curtain, the action of the play begins in 1960 with Tynan entering the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin to make Welles a theatrical proposal. Succeeding, the balance of the action then takes place at he Royal Court Theater in London where Welles directs Olivier and Plowright in a production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros.
Seeing Orson’s Shadow should be practically mandatory for film buffs, theater lovers and critics of all sorts by nature of its subject matter. The characterizations, mostly based on fact, are smartly critical whilst remaining sensitive and almost playful at times. The cast is solid and exceedingly well-balanced, and the play is delivered with a steady and understanding hand by director Matt Sciple. You will likely learn a few things even while you laugh. Garry Geiken as Welles is uncannily convincing. John Middleton as Tynan brings Tynan’s character to life, even incorporating his occasional stutter without it ever descending into caricature. Alan Sorenson has a hard row to hoe playing the greatest British actor of the 20th Century, but successfully brings strained humor to the rehearsal of Rhinoceros where he portrays Olivier portraying Berenger unable to decide how to hold a dust cloth in a scene with Daisy, played by Joan Plowright, played in turn by Katie Guentzel. (Follow that?) Vivien Leigh is played by Carolyn Pool, whose first scene as Leigh is carried off both over the telephone and simultaneously in person in a creative way. The character of Sean the stagehand and sort of Boy Friday is played by Matt Rein, and Rein’s performance is like a sort of glue which binds the entire play and the other characters together.
Understated scenery and simple lighting by Carl Schoenborn allows for a much fuller set to be easily created in the imagination.
As the play concludes, Plowright acknowledges that she is the only character in the play whose namesake is still living so that leaves it to her to “wrap things up.” She answers “What happens to me?” questions for the other characters in a human and touching way.
Ultimately, among other issues, the play raises questions about living in the shadow of one’s own success. As suggested by the title, no one was likely as eclipsed by Orson’s shadow as much as Welles himself. I mean really, when one makes Citizen Kane at age 26, what’s left to do? Or as Welles’s character puts the question in Pendleton’s play, “Am I to be remembered for one movie, which I directed from my highchair?”
Orson’s Shadow runs through March 9th. Gremlin Theatre Box Office: 651-228-7008
www.gremlin-theatre.org
Note: Make sure to have a detailed map with you if you are St. Paul challenged. I am filing this review a week later than I had hoped after getting lost trying to find the theater in downtown St. Paul on opening weekend.
Related links:
Location Info:
The Loading Dock Theater
Artist Info: The Gremlin Theatre
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