Orson's Shadow

Having thoroughly enjoyed the 2005 production of Austin Pendleton's Orson's Shadow, I was looking forward with excitement to the current production, directed by Pendleton, at the Theater for The New City. I am happy to report that this version is a worthy successor to the original. 

Austin Pendleton and Cast
Photo: Jonathan Slaff

Orson's Shadow takes place in 1960, with Orson Welles desperately seeking financing for a movie, critic Kenneth Tynan looking for a way to work at the new National Theatre, and Laurence Olivier stuck between the old (his wife Vivien Leigh; his traditional approach to acting) and the new (his girlfriend Joan Plowright; an edgier approach to acting). They all come together when Tynan talks Olivier into accepting Welles as the director of his production of Ionesco's Rhinocerous. Their interactions are volatile and button-pressing as they try to conjure up a workable version of a play that none of them particularly likes or respects.

Pendleton expertly uses this situation to consider love, acting, peaking young, madness, and the business of theatre and movies. His cast is not always physically apt, but all are quite good: Brad Fryman as a aggressively boisterous Orson Welles, Patrick Hamilton as a chain-smoking Kenneth Tynan, Ryan Tramont as a breath-takingly self-centered Laurence Olivier, Natalie Menna as a painfully self-aware Vivien Leigh, Kim Taff as a quietly perceptive Joan Plowright, and Luke Hofmaier as Welles's bemused assistant.

With a show about real people, there's always the distracting issue of, do the actors look like the person they're playing? It's ultimately irrelevant: eg, Ryan Tramont's lack of resemblance to Olivier doesn't hurt his excellent performance, once you get used to it. And you can't expect anyone to actually look like Vivien Leigh--that's one heck of a high bar--but Natalie Menna succeeds in her depiction nevertheless.

A more serious problem--common to historical novels and biopics as well--is the vibe of parasitism when artists use the fame and personalities of real people to provide excitement and drama in their own work. These characters say lines written for them whether or not the real people ever said them or would have said them.

I do, however, have to admit that Pendleton uses these particular people well. The show is moving, fascinating, funny, and heart-breaking. It's a bit baggy--with not much editing, its two hours with an intermission could easily be 90 minutes without--but overall it is a strong production of a strong show. 

Tickets for Orson's Shadow are $25 ($15 for seniors and students). It's amazing, and exciting, that such quality can be accessed at such reasonable prices. (Orson's Shadow runs through the end of the month. For more info, click here.)

Wendy Caster