''Orson's Shadow'' is a play by

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including ''Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...

. The play received a

Lucille Lortel Lucille Lortel (née Wadler, December 16, 1900 – April 4, 1999) was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for ...

Award nomination for Outstanding Play and won the

Drama League Award The Drama League Awards, created in 1922, honor distinguished productions and performances both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, in addition to recognizing exemplary career achievements in theatre, musical theatre, and directing. Each May, the awards ...

for Distinguished Performance.

Plot

The play, based on true events, is set in 1960

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In his declining years,

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

is directing a production of

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...

's ''

Rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

'', starring

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...

and

Joan Plowright Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier, (née Plowright; born 28 October 1929), professionally known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English retired actress whose career has spanned over seven decades. She has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Ton ...

. Olivier is fresh from his triumphant theatrical portrayal of

vaudevillian Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

Archie Rice and is about to reprise the role in the film adaptation of

John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play ''Look Back in Anger'' tra ...

's '' The Entertainer''. He and Plowright are in the early stages of a romantic liaison; Olivier's tumultuous marriage to

Vivien Leigh Vivien Leigh ( ; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gon ...

is all but ended. Critic

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of ...

also figures in the plot, which debates the merits of stage versus screen, the internal struggle that theatrical performers endure when contemplating a leap to films, and the ways that the studio system frustrated the careers of individual artists. It is a study of theatrical egos, each of the protagonists living more on the stage than in real life, each one feeling insecure while jockeying for power.

Production history

United States

The play debuted at the

Steppenwolf Theatre Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on H ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in January 2000 and was performed at the

Westport Country Playhouse Westport Country Playhouse, is a not-for-profit regional theater in Westport, Connecticut. It was founded in 1931 by Lawrence Langner, a New York theater producer. Langner remodeled an 1830s tannery with a Broadway-quality stage. History Con ...

that summer and the

Old Globe Theatre The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons. Plays are performed in three separate theatres in the complex, which i ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

in September of that year. The

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

production, directed by

David Cromer David Cromer (born October 17, 1964) is an American theatre director, and stage, film, and TV actor. He has received recognition for his work on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in his native Chicago. Cromer has won or been nominated for numerous aw ...

, opened on March 13, 2005 at the

Barrow Street Theatre Barrow Street Theatre is the name of both a 199-seat Off-Broadway theatre located in New York City's historic Greenwich House at 27 Barrow Street and a production company of the same name. From 2003 to 2018, the venue was leased to Barrow Street ...

, where it ran for 349 performances. The cast included Jeff Still as Orson Welles,

John Judd John Judd (born 9 April 1942) is a Formula One engineer from England. He is the boss of Engine Developments Ltd., manufacturers of Judd engines. He is also known for his partnership with triple F1 World Champion Sir Jack Brabham. Formula 1 wo ...

as Laurence Olivier, Susan Bennett as Joan Plowright, Lee Roy Rogers as Vivien Leigh,

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received ...

as Ken Tynan, and Ian Westerfer as the stagehand Sean. Since its

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

staging, ''Orson's Shadow'' has been mounted by a number of regional theatres, including

Marin Theatre Company The Marin Theatre Company (MTC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and professional LORT D regional theater located in Mill Valley, California. Jasson Minadakis is the company's Artistic Director and Meredith Suttles its Managing Director / CEO. ...

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

, Round House Theatre in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

, Unicorn Theatre in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, and the Gorilla Theatre in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

United Kingdom

In 2006 it received a rehearsed reading at London's

Old Vic Theatre The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit organization, not-for-profit producing house, producing theatre in Waterloo, London, Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Th ...

, and in July 2015 received its European premiere directed by Alice Hamilton at London's

Southwark Playhouse Southwark Playhouse is a theatre in London, located between Borough and Elephant and Castle tube stations. History The Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice and Tom Wilson. They identified the need for a h ...

, as part of the Orson Welles centenary. The cast included John Hodgkinson as Orson Welles,

Adrian Lukis Adrian Leonard Fellowes Lukis (born 28 March 1957) is an English actor who has appeared regularly in British television drama since the late 1980s. His most recent notable appearances have been as Sergeant Doug Wright in the police drama ser ...

as Laurence Olivier,

Louise Ford Louise Ford is a British comedian and actress. She has appeared in comedy television including children's sketch series ''Horrible Histories'' (2015–2018) and performed a leading role in '' Crashing'' (2016). She portrayed a fictionalised versi ...

as Joan Plowright,

Gina Bellman Gina Bellman (born 1966) is a New Zealand-born British actress best known for her performances as grifter Sophie Devereaux on the 2008-12 TNT television series ''Leverage'' and in the revival '' Leverage: Redemption'' when the series moved to A ...

as Vivien Leigh, Edward Bennett as Kenneth Tynan, and

Ciaran O'Brien Ciaran Patrick O'Brien (born November 17, 1987) is an American soccer coach and former player. Early life and education O'Brien played center midfield for four years at Decatur High School in Federal Way, Washington, where he earned NSCAA A ...

as the stagehand Sean.Stratford, Brice
Review: 'Orson's Shadow' makes its European debut
Wellesnet. July 8, 2015

External links

(Internet archive copy; actual domain ownership lapsed.)
Lortel Archives listing
* ttp://www.wellesnet.com/review-orsons-shadow-makes-its-european-debut/ 2015 Wellesnet review

References

{{Reflist Fiction set in 1960 2000 plays American plays Off-Broadway plays Plays based on actual events Plays set in the 1960s Cultural depictions of Orson Welles Plays set in London Biographical plays about actors Works about Orson Welles