BWW Reviews: ORSON'S SHADOW, Southwark Playhouse, July 6 2015

In 1960, two gigantic figures of 20th century culture - inevitably, two gigantic egos too - came together to work on Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros at London's hotbed of stage innovation, The Royal Court. Orson Welles was the director and Laurence Olivier the lead actor - it didn't go well.

Austin Pendleton's play (staged for the first time in London) imagines what went on as these two men circled each other, clashed over artistic choices and nurtured the myths that still cling to them today. Did they talk exactly like that? Probably not - but the fourth wall is broken at the very start, so we're aware that this is no slice of biopic, but a theatrical presentation of a relationship. It means that we have much more fun too!

Ken Tynan (yes, that Ken Tynan) opens the bout with a tongue-in-cheek knowing exposition of where we are and how we got there. Edward Bennett captures Tynan's languid sense of superiority, but it's a rather underwritten part, getting plenty of laughs, but too often simply sitting there, passive - perhaps a wry comment on the role of the critic.

Tynan admires both Welles and Olivier (almost as much as they admire themselves) and seizes the opportunity to bring them together as both need money for personal projects - there's possibly just a touch of mischief in Tynan's motivation too. John Hodgkinson vests Welles with all that familiar charisma, and the lip-curling voice that was never too far from a sneer, but also conveys the frustration of a man doomed to be considered past his best after Citizen Kane - made by Wells at 26, lest we forget.

Adrian Lukis plays Olivier as a an edgy, proud, insecure man - despite his recent triumph in The Entertainer. Getting the voice right - almost whistling through his teeth at times - Lukis delivers what must be quite a daunting role for an actor to play! He's at his best when being pulled between his wife, Vivien Leigh, whose bipolar episodes are destroying her life, and Joan Plowright, whose steely theatrical competence proves irresistible to the older man. Gina Bellman looks the part and dominates the stage as the fading movie superstar whose mind is sliding away, but Louise Ford, good though she is, just doesn't have enough to do as Plowright, a figure who is somewhat shortchanged in this production.

Orson's Shadow - continuing at Southwark Playhouse until 25 July - is slick, sexy and starry, at turns very funny and very sad. Though its balance between the characters goes off-keel from time to time, this is smart entertainment for grown-ups that, unlike its source production, works very well.

Photo Simon Annand

To post a comment, you must register and login.