Orson's Shadow

Orson’s Shadow

For the sake of disclosure let me say I have seen or been part of four different productions of Orson’s Shadow. The production directed by Damaso Rodriguez, the new “wunderkind” Associate Artistic Director of the Pasadena Playhouse, makes my fifth. I like this play very much as I think it captures more than most “insider” plays about the theatre, what really goes on in rehearsal, in the busy chaotic lives of actors, in the egos behind the scenes which make it all possible yet can also lead to disaster, and the nature of the real superstars before we had Britney or Michael J. What the current production proves is just how good the play is. Orson’s Shadow has won numerous awards for its playwright Austin Pendleton who also happens to be a terrific actor, director, and teacher. This production might just earn him some more accolades.

The production is a solid one, very professional, and the acting is good. My qualms about the production have more to do with tone, heavily comedic at the expense of feeling, Yes we want to see the larger than life figures of Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, Joan Plowright, and Lawrence Olivier but for me the play works better when it is more intimate (it was originally done at Steppenwolf in a fifty seat house), and more thoroughly explored emotionally. A good example of this is the moment in the First scene where Rita Hayworth’s name is brought up and Orson says he saw her recently and she didn’t know him. The moment was played for laughs as part of a general riff by Orson about being forgotten in Hollywood. No sign that Rita didn’t know him because she had Alzheimer and her forgetting Orson would have been devastating. Its true that Orson never liked to dwell on the negative or on the past, Except when he is dealing with Vivian Leigh we don’t see much of his inner world. Another example of this is the moment when Olivier calls him a fat failure incapable of playing Macbeth or Othello (which Orson had played in movies) is turned into a laugh by having Orson swallow a diet pill in defiance.

Scott Lowell, recently of Queer Like Folk, is quite good as Kenneth Tynan. The character is always on the verge of being annoying with all his stuttering, smoking, and coughing and Mr. Lowell manages to keep our attention and sympathies. 

Charles Shaughnessy  (The Nanny) is a wonderfully neurotic, prideful, foolish Olivier who is torn apart by his destructive relationship with Vivien Leigh. Bruce McGill makes a forceful, matter of fact Orson showing us a man who has survived by plowing ahead, given in to indulgence, and who has a rapier wit. Sharon Lawrence is a very theatrical Vivien and captures the actress Vivien very well.

I particularly loved Nick Cernach as Sean, Orson’s young feisty Irish assistant. He has a wonderful tough yet innocent quality, which was nicely shown in contrasts to the super egos he works with. Libby West is a superb Joan Plowright and shows may dimensions in her characterization.

One questionable choice in an otherwise taut, swiftly moving production was the opening. The scrim of a very elegant theatre, the heavy music, and the loud applause that begins the piece is perhaps misleading as the first scene takes place in the tiny Gate Theater in Dublin and it is stated the audience was very spare. Not so at the Playhouse and the audience gave the production a nice round of applause though no standing ovation, but that is more a sign of the lack of intimacy in a larger theatre than in the quality of the show.

Orson’s Shadow is at The Pasadena Playhouse until February 17.