Orson's Shadow
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Cast
Photo by Craig Schwartz
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By Joseph N. Feinstein
If you like the smell of smoke...if you enjoy seeing one ego pitting itself against another's ego...if you like the sort of name dropping only those in Hollywood do so well, then Orson's Shadow, conceived by Judith Auberjonois and written by Austin Pendleton of Uncle Bob and Booth fame, is the play for you. For this writer, none of those things holds any enchantment whatsoever.
This is the story of how famed critic, Kenneth Tynan (Scott Lowell), induces legendary star, Orson Welles (Bruce McGill), to direct the Ionesco production of Rhinoceros, which will star the equally legendary Laurence Olivier (Charles Shaughnessy) and his current mistress, Joan Plowright (Libby West). Meanwhile, Olivier's wife, Vivian Leigh (Sharon Lawrence), sits at home attending to her mental breakdown.
All the actors are wonderful in their parts; the major problem is that the lines created for them by Pendleton are banal, dull, and unimportant. Welles' to Tynan, "You have a brilliant mind but no real intelligence." It makes us hungry for more of insightful moments but, alas, what we have is a Hollywood giant, Orson Welles, eating himself to death while the most respected British critic of his time, Tynan, is, likewise, smoking himself to death. Olivier's determination to do this absurdist play, so out of character for him, shows us his will to survive. He transmits his conflicts about his love for Leigh, even while her health is deteriorating mentally and physically from tuberculosis, and he has fallen in love with Plowright.
Welles' comments to Olivier about Rhinoceros, " I hate this play" and "There is no suspense in this play" could summarize my feelings perfectly about Shadow. Seeing great actors stripped of their lines behind the camera is disillusioning. Knowing Welles felt comfortable acting, but not directing, brings to light how large an actor's ego can be to think he can handle a job for which he is totally inexperienced and unfit. Tynan refers to Olivier's performance as "agonized inadequacy." Sadly, I find the same expression could be applied to this play.
Orson's Shadow runs at the Pasadena Playhouse until February 17.
Orson's Shadow Pasadena Playhouse 39 S. El Molino Pasadena 91101 Tel. 626-356-PLAY Tuesday - Friday @ 8:00 p.m.; Saturday @ 4:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.; Sunday @ 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.; Wednesday, February 6 @ 2:00 p.m.
Tickets $25 - $65
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