Orson's Shadow - a play by Austin Pendelton

[PT Caffey]

Steppenwolf Theater Company member Austin Pendelton's play, Orson's Shadow, is now available in a CD-audio version from LA Theater Works. Details below:

Orson's Shadow
By: Austin Pendelton
Starring: Glenne Headly, Martin Jarvis, Simon Templeman

"Sir Laurence Olivier. Orson Welles. Vivien Leigh. Joan Plowright. Kenneth Tynan. When these champions of the theatre get together to rehearse Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, mere mortals best step aside. With lightning wit and scathing insight into the true nature of genius, Austin Pendleton’s new play opens the private worlds of these very public people, exposing their warmth, their egos, and their glittering madness."
Running Time: 116 minutes

http://www.latw.org/catalog....eleases

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks for the link, PT. I've seen Orson's Shadow on stage twice and enjoyed it very much both times. This CD was announced quite awhile ago, but it looks like they've finally got the go ahead to start selling it. Good news.

[Wellesnet]

"Orson's Shadow" recently received a new production in Rhode Island. Here's a glowing review:

http://www.broadwayworld.com/rhode-isla ... -20140530#

[Wellesnet]

New production in the D.C. area, in a shopping mall! Sounds like a community production, but it's the first Welles-related theatre production of the centennial.
http://www.ssstage.org/season/orsons-shadow/

[Wellesnet]

Orson Shadow makes it's European debut in London this July:
http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/londonth ... w14702.htm

[Wellesnet]

July 1st thru 25th:
http://www.wellesnet.com/orsons-shadow- ... -premiere/

[Wellesnet]

Opens today.
'When Orson met Larry: 'Welles was a very bad boy. But he was a great artist':
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/j ... hadow-play

[Roger Ryan]

On Saturday night, I was able to catch the current Detroit staging of Orson's Shadow at the Planet Ant Theater...

http://www.planetant.com/orsons-shadow

...and would agree with the Detroit Free Press review of the play...

http://www.freep.com/story/entertainmen ... /76467530/

As to the script itself by Austin Pendleton, I thought it managed to incorporate a lot of information regarding Welles' career and presented it in clever ways to support the drama. Overall, the play almost feels like a two-hour promotion for Chimes at Midnight which is referenced as much, if not more, than Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. Although it's a cheat to have the fictional Welles abandon the editing of Touch of Evil to stage the Ionesco play in London in 1960 (the play assumes the audience won't realize the film was released in 1958), it sets up an amusing tirade by the Kenneth Tynan character in which he predicts many of the pitfalls Welles will encounter over the next two decades. Less understandable fictionalizations include the idea that Welles was still trying to finish his film of Othello when, in reality, the initial edit was completed eight years earlier (this appears to be a stand-in for Don Quixote which is also referenced, correctly, as an incomplete work). Most troubling was the final summation by the Joan Plowright character who states that Welles only finished one film after Touch of Evil (his beloved Chimes), an unfortunate and unneeded inaccuracy that would seem to have little impact on the drama.

Orson's Shadow is a fun play, nonetheless, and I was pleased it was given a robust staging at the very intimate Planet Ant.

[Wellesnet]

Orson's Shadow has a two-week Chicago run starting this Friday:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/p ... story.html

[Wellesnet]

Review of a recent Provincetown production:
https://provincetown.wickedlocal.com/en ... -of-genius