Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

My hometown of St. Louis sees another Welles play being mounted; this one is called The Probe: an Inquiry Into the Meteoric Rise and Spectacular Fall of Orson Welles in Hollywood. "Conceived and created by Chuck Harper," as the home page states, it uses pre-existing material to look at Welles' career. This article�features a brief interview with the author, a university professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. I was able to read the article, and then got requests to register, so if you want to view it and not register, use this: ID: bugmenot PW: bugmenot. It sounds interesting, with the production getting around the problem of imitating Welles by choosing to have actors as unlike him as possible, even having Welles portrayed by a woman at one point; no reviews that�I could find, however.�

-JW

��* * * * * * * * * * ��OBEDIENTLY YOURS, ORSON WELLES�In Paris�By Leslie Weisman�Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of seeing this play, written by the esteemed Welles scholar and author Richard France (Orson Welles on Shakespeare, 2001; The Theatre of Orson Welles, 1977) and adapted for the French stage by actor and writer Jacques Collard. "Obediently Yours, Orson Welles" has been translated into French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and Italian, and staged in as many countries. Failing a close-to-home venue, I did the next best thing, seeing it in a city that he loved and, judging by the full house and enthusiastic, sympathetic reception, one that remembers him, and returns the sentiment:�Paris. [This may be the appropriate place to note that I am a friend of Mr. France, and have worked with him. That said, what follows is my honest appraisal of seeing the play.]� Conveniently situated about a block from the Champs-Elys�es Cl�men�eau metro station, the Th��tre Marigny�s Salle Popesco, the "modern" half of the two-theater complex, seating about 300, is an ideal venue for an intimate portrayal of Welles.�The play is a marvel of economy that takes us through his life from the perspective of his last year, as his attempts to obtain financing for DON QUIJOTE from friends (in some cases, this appellation should be seen as carrying invisible quotation marks) and associates are set against a carefully structured, temporally shifting shadow play of episodes from his life and career.�Not an overly rosy portrait � no one would accuse the author of trying to whitewash Welles�it is nonetheless an intimate, affecting, and affectionate one.� The setting is a recording studio, where Welles is making the infamous radio commercials which, while essential sources of money that would allow him to make his own films, perhaps inevitably earned him the derision of the mean-spirited and the uninitiated � another reason this play should be on everyone�s play list, and not just Wellesians�.��

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Richard France�s play OBEDIENTLY YOURS, ORSON WELLES is now playing in Paris at the Th��tre Marigny until Oct. 29.

Our European correspondent Allegra saw the play while she was in Paris and tells me it's quite wonderful, noting that the actor M. Drouot at times seemed almost to be channeling Welles. If you live or are going to be in France anytime during October you can order tickets here:

Tickets

Marigny - Salle Popesco
Carr� Marigny, avenue Marigny
75008 Paris

There is also a nice piece by David Larre (in French) here that has three pictures of M. Drouot as Orson Welles. He looks uncannily like Orson!

Article

As noted on the message board, Simon Callow's adaptation of Micheal MacLiammoir's memoir Put Money In Thy Purse is being given a re-broadcast this Saturday on BBC5 radio. The play will be available for listening for the week following, so you have plenty of time to catch it.

On a site note: does anyone know CSS? I am having a hell of a time trying to do a couple things on this news page that require CSS, and I am new to it. Email me if you can help, I'd appreciate it. I don't think it is anything difficult.