evening

‘An Evening with Orson Welles’ (and Eartha Kitt), August 1950

August 6, 2020
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Orson Welles, with the support of singer Eartha Kitt and Gate Theatre founders Micheal MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards, staged An Evening with Orson Welles at three stops in West Germany in August 1950.

Performances began at the Frankfurt Zoo theater before moving on to Hamburg and Munich.

An Evening with Orson Welles, under the direction of Edwards, consisted of Time Runs — Welles’ take on Faust; a bit from the Oscar Wilde comedy The Importance of Being Earnest; a scene from Henry VI; and, not surprisingly, some sleight of hand.

Speaking with the German weekly Der Spiegel, Welles insisted his version of Faust had little to do with the drama by Johann Goethe.

“It is terribly difficult,” sighed Welles in a two-hour interview on the sunny terrace of the Frankfurt Press Club, “to make it clear to the Germans that the Faust story already existed 300 years before Goethe.”

Welles was old hand at Faust. He was just 21 years old when he directed, designed costumes for, and appeared in the title role of Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus for the Federal Theater Project in 1937.

His Time Runs was  a mixture of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Divine Comedy — with the music of Duke Ellington.

eveneing

Eartha Kitt and Orson Welles in West Germany for An Evening with Orson Welles.

The August 12 performance in Frankfurt was reviewed by the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes and — according to writer Win Fanning — Kitt stole the show as Helen of Troy. Fanning  wrote:

Eartha Kitt, whose haunting rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Hungry Little Trouble” blends beautifully with the poetry of Faust, quite literally steals the show. The petite 22-year-old South Carolinian invariably draws applause by her singing of “Yo Creo Yo Tengo un Amor” (I Think I Have a Love), a song she wrote herself. Her brief recital between the dramatic portions of the production is certainly worth the price of admission.

As a whole, the show suffers by trying to offer too much. The admittedly talented Welles seems to display all his tricks, dramatic and otherwise, within too short a time. Supported by Micheal MacLiammoir and Miss Kitt, he presents a convincing and artistic Faust, although one wonders if the piece would not go over more effectively on the radio or as a television production.

Unfortunately, Welles has detracted from his major presentation by offering a bit out of Oscar Wilde’s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, a number of thoroughly professional card tricks and the Henry VI scene, to say nothing of Miss Kitt’s recital, all between 8:30 and 11 p.m.

Welles may not have appreciated the Stars and Stripes critique of his work, but he likely would have agreed with its take on Kitt, who he once called “the most exciting woman on earth.”

Earlier that year, Welles had caught her performance at the Parisian night club Carroll. He was suitably impressed and soon cast Kitt as Helen of Troy in Time Runs, which debuted in Paris in June 1950.

“After rehearsing all night, Orson would walk me up the Champs-Elysée to my hotel with the sun coming up. We would look at the sights, window-shop, and he would recite Shakespeare to me,” Kitt said of Welles.

Kitt, who had an affair with millionaire diplomat and race car driver Porfirio Rubirosa, recalled the “fabulous lunches” Welles would buy her.

“Orson really introduced me to a marvelous gourmet type of living. Him and Rubirosa – I tell you, I was absolutely spoiled by the best kind of men.”

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