(ActorsNET poster design by Cheryl Doyle)

follow the poster link to the ActorsNET show web page

Dale Simon as Orson Welles

 Paul Dake as Ken Tynan

Carol Thompson as Vivien Leigh

Vicky Czarnik as Joan Plowright

ActorsNET of Bucks County

Orson's Shadow

programme cover

Notes on Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow and Ionesco’s Rhinoceros

compiled by George Hartpence

Orson's Shadow is a play that has a lot going for it. It's about the struggle to create art amid personal turmoil; it's about the conflict between different types of artists; it's even got some juicy gossip about legendary movie stars. And it's got some very witty and intelligent dialogue, courtesy of playwright Austin Pendleton.

It's 1960, and Orson Welles has been hired to direct Laurence Olivier in a London production of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros. Welles has a lot to prove with this production: it's been nearly twenty years since he became a legend, thanks to Citizen Kane, but his demanding perfectionism has made him a pariah in Hollywood. Olivier, meanwhile, wants to prove that he's more than just the world's greatest classical actor; he wants to show that he can handle edgy, modern works like Ionesco's. He is also struggling to make a clean break from his tormented wife, Vivien Leigh, and create a new life with his lover (and Rhinoceros leading lady) Joan Plowright. Critic Kenneth Tynan is on hand, too, to assist Welles with the production.

Playing well-known, recognizable figures can be a tricky proposition; our actors in Orson's Shadow generally steer clear of direct imitation – relying instead on a few physical mannerisms or vocal inflections to convey a sense of the character’s famous persona.

If you’re unfamiliar with Hollywood history you need not be deterred from seeing Orson's Shadow, now being staged at the ActorsNET of Bucks County, as despite the play's mostly factual gathering of stage and screen legends backstage at the Royal Court Theatre in London, each of the impressive characters, director Orson Welles, thespian Laurence Olivier, stars Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright, both of whom shared marriage vows with the former, and storied critic Kenneth Tynan, find plenty of time to run down their list of credits and accomplishments throughout the night.

And leave it to playwright Austin Pendleton to insert such egotistical rants throughout Orson's Shadow, occasionally while breaking the fourth wall, without ever being anything but acutely accurate in his characterizations of actors in general, who often find time to slip in a name drop or credit whenever the situation allows.  Pendleton is a spot-on observer of human characters, and much of this play is built upon such intuitive examinations of theatrical legends.

While Ionesco's play, Rhinoceros, is a comment on totalitarianism and group conformity as a small French town, with the exception of one man, all turn into rhinos, there are strong thematic similarities between Ionesco's modern classic and Austin Pendleton's behind-the-scenes look at the staging of this play.

In Rhinoceros, Ionesco's characters literally transform into pachyderms, representing modern society's easy ability to turn into unfeeling and hardened creatures who have left their humanity behind.  Similarly, Welles in real life and in the play is a large, hulking, domineering individual whose singular and determined sense of artistic vision often made him appear aggressive and bullying to others. Once he's put into a rehearsal room with Laurence Olivier, the stage is set for a showdown as the two men occasionally go at each other like wild beasts. 

But Rhinoceros is also about taking a stand as best seen by the play's hero Berenger (played by Olivier) who goes from apathy to action. "I'm not capitulating!" Berenger screams in the final line of Rhinoceros. Welles frequently screamed similar sentiments at the Hollywood studios who wanted him to conform to their ideas of how a movie should be made and edited.  Despite having achieved fame at a young age for Citizen Kane, Welles spent the remainder of his film career unsuccessfully trying to assert his right to complete control and final cut privileges over his work.

Where Welles and Olivier ultimately have it out, though, is over the question of modernity. In Pendleton's play, Welles wants to direct Rhinoceros in the modernist fashion in which Ionesco conceived it. Olivier, however, known principally for performing Shakespeare, approaches the play (and tries to undo Orson's directing) from a romantic perspective. Olivier's new flame Joan Plowright had already made a name for herself performing Ionesco and Pendleton clearly positions Plowright not only as Olivier's new love interest, but also as the embodiment of modern drama, while Vivien Leigh represents not only Olivier's broken marriage, but also an older style of acting.

Orson's Shadow, then, is not a "simple" look at stubborn rhinoceros-like theatrical egos, but a clash of multiple ideologies: modernity vs. tradition, innovation vs. status quo, and the individual vs. the collective. Pendleton's play reveals both the rhinoceros and the non-conformist in Welles and Olivier, a struggle that both of them would fight between each other and internally for much of their lives.

Orson' Shadow received its world premiere at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in January 2000, and subsequently premiered in New York City at the Barrow Street Theatre in March of 2005.  Rhinoceros was originally produced on January 25, 1960, at the Odéon in Paris under the direction of Jean-Louis Barrault.  Its London premier was on April 28, 1960 at the Royal Court Theater, directed by Orson Welles and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright.  Ken Tynan was not involved in this production, though he did go on to work with Olivier at the National Theatre.

Sources:

Real Life Rhinoceros by Warren Hoffman, Philadelphia Theatre Company

www.theatrehistory.com

www.wikipedia.org

www.steppenwolf.org

Orson’s Shadow is a Gift to the Stage by James Sims, BroadwayWorld.com blog

Orson’s Shadow Study Guide, Marin Theatre Company, www.marintheatre.org

George Hartpence as Laurence Olivier

and Carol Thompson as Vivien Leigh

George Hartpence as Laurence Olivier

and Carol Thompson as Vivien Leigh

George Hartpence (left) as Laurence Olivier and

Dale Simon (right) as Orson Welles

Mark Riley (left) as Sean and

Dale Simon (right) as Orson Welles

preliminary "place-keeper" poster for GH website

initial submission to NET

based on Barrow Street Theatre production

"Orsonoceros" poster - just for fun!

AUSTIN PENDLETON (Playwright) - a graduate of the Yale School of Drama - is an acclaimed multi-talented artist.  Orson's Shadow is one of his three published plays - a second, Booth, will be presented here for a May/June run, and his third, Uncle Bob, is under consideration for future presentation. Orson's Shadow won a Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Play and won a Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance.  It debuted at Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre in January 2000 and moved to the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in September of that year. The Off-Broadway production at the Barrow Street Theatre opened in March 2005 and ran for 349 performances.  It has since become a popular regional theatre title, from coast to coast. Mr. Pendleton co-wrote the book for the musical The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz with Mordecai Richler; music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Spencer.  An ensemble-member of Steppenwolf Theatre since 1987 he apprenticed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where he frequently acts and directs. On Broadway, he has appeared in The Diary of Ann Frank, Doubles, Hail Strawdyke and as Motel in the original cast of Fiddler On the Roof.  An Obie award -winning actor, Mr. Pendleton just completed an Off-Broadway run of The Mad Monk (Jan `09). Other Off-Broadway acting credits include Richard II, Richard III, Hamlet, The Sunset limited, The Sweet Days of Isaac, and Oh, Dad, Poor Dad, Momma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad. Regional acting credits include King Lear and Waiting for Godot for the New Repertory Theatre.  Film credits include The Front Page, Piccadilly Jim, Dirty Work, Finding Nemo, A Beautiful Mind, Queenie in Love, Manna from Heaven, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, What’s Up Doc, Joe the King, The Associate, Trial and Error, Amistadt, Sue, The Muppet Movie, My Cousin Vinnie)' and Christmas with the Cranks. His television credits include Homicide (NBC), 0Z (HBO), The Fourth Floor (HBO) and Liberty (PBS). He has directed three Tony-nominated Broadway productions: Spoils of War by Michael Weller and starring Kate Nelligan, The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman and starring Elizabeth Taylor, and the musical Shelter by Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, which starred Marcia Rodd. He teaches acting at the HB Studio in New York.

Interview with playwright Austin Pendleton on “Orson’s Shadow” which opened on January 23^rd, 2009 at the ActorsNET of Bucks County:

Austin Pendleton:  I’m so thrilled that the ActorsNET is doing two of my plays, Orson’s Shadow and Booth, in their season.

In the spring of 1996 I was approached by my friend Judith Auberjonois to write the play and it was developed at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.  Over breakfast that morning she told me that in 1960, in London, Orson Welles had directed Laurence Olivier and that by the time the play opened Orson no longer felt welcome in the project.

Orson’s Shadow re-imagines actual events during those rehearsals of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, directed by Welles and starring Olivier and Joan Plowright (his then paramour and soon-to-be third wife). Having Welles direct the play was set in motion by Welles' ardent admirer, critic Kenneth Tynan for whom this matchmaking was a stepping stone to a job as the soon to be formed National Theatre's literary manager, which Olivier had been named to head. Additional theatrical fireworks ensue with visits from Vivien Leigh (Olivier’s soon-to-be ex-wife).

AP: I was daunted by the idea at first.  Originally I wasn't sure how to approach their lives so that they would seem more than "turf wars," but then I read in a biography of Olivier that it was during the rehearsals for Rhinoceros that Olivier decided to make the break with Vivien Leigh and that's when it fell into place. I knew there was something dramatic there.

AP: I think that these characters are all on the line. Playwrights are drawn to people, whether imaginary or actual, who do that. Who wants to watch an evening of people who don't put themselves on the line? They allow themselves to be totally vulnerable and I like that.

AP: Almost everything in the play is based on fact, although things happen not necessarily in the context in which they originally took place.

AP: I had worked with Orson in the movie of Catch-22, which was rough. He was an unhappy guy and wished he had been directing it. He was very funny and charismatic, but disruptive.  He did to director Mike Nichols on that film what Olivier does to Orson in Orson's Shadow.  After that movie I began to see his other movies and I saw that he was a major artist.

AP: I also met Vivien Leigh once for about an hour in 1962. I never saw her on stage, but I was in Oh Dad, Poor Dad and she was thinking about doing the show in London. My mother and I were invited to tea by Vivien so that we could talk about the play. We went up at 4 PM to Vivien's suite in the Dorset. She was gorgeous, in part because she was in distress (this was a couple of years after the breakup with Laurence) in that way that with some people their beauty is enhanced by suffering, it just intensifies their beauty. She's the only person I ever met where there was a kind of courtesy that is rarely seen.

You're an actor, playwright, director and you wear many hats very well.    When did you start writing as a playwright?

AP: When I turned 50. It was my present to myself. Until then I had been hired to work on the librettos for musicals, but none has been produced professionally. And then someone said, why don't you just try writing a play? I took the idea behind a musical I had been working on and I turned it into my first play, Booth. It was very exhilarating and that play was a real crowd pleaser.

Booth, another theatrical story - this time about the famous first family of American Tragedy - is scheduled for a May/June run in 2009 at the NET.  With any luck, the ActorsNET will complete the trilogy by presenting the third of my plays, Uncle Bob (which by the way has nothing to do with famous theatrical personages), in an upcoming season soon.

Excerpted with the playwright’s permission from an interview with Warren Hoffman, dramaturg for the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and from other direct communications with ActorsNET personnel.

Paul Dake as Kenneth Tynan welcomes the audience and sets the stage.

Disguising exposition as...

the English maid.

Sean Riley (left as Sean) and

Paul Dake as (right) Ken Tynan

Orson arrives on stage at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.

Dale Simon as Orson Welles (center)

Sean shares Orson's late night meal.

Ken and Orson come to terms.

Paul Dake as Ken Tynan (left).

Dale Simon as Orson Welles (right)

Playwright's advice on playing Laurence Olivier:

Mr. Pendleton was kind enough to reply to a letter I sent to him asking for advice on assaying the role of "the greatest actor of the twentieth century."  His advice proved invaluable to me. GH

"Advice: well, I guess, just go for it.  Remember about Olivier: he's not an asshole.  (Some people seem to miss that point.)  In a way he's the most professional of all of them because he's really tearing himself apart trying to find his way into the part he's playing.  And he does love Vivien, he really does.  It's just that she scares the shit out of him.  It's implied but never directly stated in the play (and perhaps it should be) that he's the only one of the five of them in the play to whom success did not come easily and early (poor Sean is, of course, in another category altogether).  So he (Olivier) desperately doesn't want to piss it all away.  What today we would call the bipolar state (Vivien certainly, and to a certain degree Orson and Ken) is terrifying to him, though (and because) he has more than a trace of it in himself.  He keeps watching it destroy other people, as people and as artists and as professionals, and, by God, that is not going to happen to him."

Resources for studying Olivier

"I never pass along my secrets. Never." Larry to Joanie in Orson's Shadow

But I do.  I used the following in fleshing out "Sir Laurence's" mannerisms:

1.  Olivier's "Big 3" Shakespeare films - Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III
2.  Laurence Olivier: Confessions of an Actor - An Autobiography
3.  Lord Larry: The Secret Life of Laurence Olivier by Michael Munn
4.  Laurence Olivier - A Life, a Granada Television interview by Melvyn Bragg
5.  The Entertainer, film
6.  The Prince and the Showgirl, film
7.  Sleuth, film

The films listed were particularly valuable for identfying physical mannerisms for Olivier, particularly at the age (53) he is depected in this play.  Of those films mentioned, I found Sleuth the most useful even thought it was filmed 10 years after the events in this play, so that should give you some idea of what my final performance looked like.  And of course it didn't hurt that, like Ken Tynan, I have idolized Olivier since I was a youth and have seen most of his film and television work at some point or another.  And I did see both the 2005 NYC Barrow Street Theatre and the 2007 Philadelphia Theatre Company productions of Orson's Shadow.

For additional advice on playing these real-life (bigger than life) characters, see Jean Schiffman's article in Backstage.

Unfortunately, I didn't find this article till after our production had closed.

Follow the link below for the complete article:

Backstage

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/other_news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003817418&inp=true

Critical Praise for the ActorsNET production of Orson's Shadow:

excerpts from Theater Review by Anthony Stoeckert in The Princton Packet

Orson's Shadow

Act II 

Rehearsal photos 

George Hartpence as Laurence Olivier and

Vicky Czarnik as Joan Plowright

Olivier (looking very much like a banker) confronts Tynan at The Royal Court Theatre

Paul Dake as Kenneth Tynan

Olivier discusses Tony Richardson's advice to the player.

"You forget that just last year I did a little thing called The Entertainer."

"That was modern, one was told."

Remembering Joanie in "Roots"

Tynan gets one in on Olivier and Joanie enjoys it a bit too much.

"She's read your stuff, you know."

Olivier trips himself up once again - "using" both Vivien and Joan for the film of Macbeth.

Olivier tells Joanie to wait while he phones Vivien out at Notley.

Carol Thompson as Vivien Leigh

Remembering Elia Kazan

Remembering Bessie Smith

Vivien twists the knife

Not breaking it off with Vivien.

Orson's Shadow

Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) The daughter of British colonials, Leigh was born in Darjeeling, India and later moved to Europe for her schooling. Leigh was featured on the London stage in productions of Shakespeare's Richard II (1936) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1937) before her star-making turn in film as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). In 1940, Leigh married Laurence Olivier and the two actors quickly became prominent celebrities in the theatre world and toured together abroad in productions of The Skin of Our Teeth, The School for Scandal, and Richard III in 1948. Leigh returned to film on occasion, starring in That Hamilton Woman (1941), Anna Karenina (1948), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) as Blanche DuBois - a role originated by her in its London debut and which garnered her second Academy Award.  However, Leigh's personal problems at times disrupted her professional success. In 1945, while acting with Olivier in The Skin of Our Teeth, she suffered from the beginnings of tuberculosis - a disease which would ultimately cause her death.  Another complication was Leigh's long struggle with manic depression and bipolar disorder, which perpetuated rumors of her difficult behavior on the set and in rehearsal. In the last few years of her life, Leigh made her final film, Ship of Fools (1965), and performed in Chekhov's Ivanov on the New York stage in 1966.

Joan Plowright (1929- ) Plowright was born in Brigg, in Lincolnshire, England, to a dancer/actress and a newspaper editor. She first appeared on the professional stage with director Harry Hanson's theater company at the Savoy. She later attended the Old Vic Theatre School in London. After an unsuccessful marriage to Richard Gage in 1953, the actress began an affair with Sir Laurence Olivier, whom she had met while performing The Entertainer (1957). In 1961, the couple married and had three children together. Other famous theater credits include an adaptation of Moby Dick--Rehearsed (1955), directed by Orson Welles; Look Back in Anger (1956); Ionesco's The Chairs and The Lesson (1956), The Country Wife (1957); A Taste of Honey (1961) for which she won a Tony Award; and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (1962), co-starring Olivier. Her film credits, among many others, include Enchanted April (1992), Jane Eyre (1996), and Tea with Mussolini (1999).

Kenneth Tynan (1927-1980) Tynan was born illegitimately in Birmingham, England. He wrote his first review at the age of 16 and went on to Oxford where he honed his writing skills. Upon graduating, he quickly entered the professional field of dramatic criticism where he became one of the most feared and respected critics of London theater. Tynan began working for The Spectator in 1951, and then moved on to The Evening Standard and The Observer, becoming the latter's critic at the young age of 27. He remained at The Observer until 1958 when he came to New York to become the drama critic for The New Yorker. Tynan played a key role in establishing the National Theatre which opened in 1963 and served as the theater literary manager for nine years. Tynan himself also wrote three plays including the erotic revue Oh, Calcutta! (1969), which became one of the longest-running Broadway musicals. Tynan died at the age of 53 from pulmonary emphysema in Santa Monica, California and was survived by his wife Kathleen and three children.

Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) Born to the son of an Anglican minister in a London suburb, Olivier studied theater as a child and made his professional debut with the Birmingham Repertory Company in 1926. Olivier became most famous for his interpretations of Shakespearean drama and his major stage plays included Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra (also starring Vivien Leigh), and The Entertainer. He won Academy Awards for his screen version of Hamlet in 1948 (Best Actor and Best Picture). He was knighted in 1947 and elevated to the rank of baron in 1970. In 1936, Olivier first worked with Vivien Leigh in the film Fire Over England. The two soon fell in love and were married in 1940 and became a power couple in the theater until their divorce in 1960. In 1963, Olivier became the director of the National Theatre and stayed there until 1973. In 1974, Olivier was diagnosed with dermatomyositis, a muscle-crippling disease that limited the amount of acting that Oliver could take on. Some of Olivier's most famous films include: Wuthering Heights (1939), Hamlet (1948), Richard III (1955) Spartacus (1960), Sleuth (1972), and Marathon Man (1976). He published his autobiography Confessions of an Actor in 1982.

Orson Welles (1915-1985) Welles was born to a successful inventor (father) and concert pianist (mother) in Kenosha, Wisconsin. By the age of fifteen, both of his parents had passed away, leaving Welles with a large inheritance, which gave him the freedom to explore his artistic talents. In 1931, Welles became a member of Dublin's Gate Players, and during the 1930s, Welles worked with John Houseman on the Federal Theatre Project, which led to the formation of the Mercury Players. In 1938, Welles's broadcast of H.G.Wells's War of the Worlds on the radio was so convincing it struck actual fear into the American public, who believed it was a real account of an alien invasion. In 1941,Welles directed, co-wrote, and starred in Citizen Kane (1941), one of the most acclaimed films of all time. However, budget and production problems damaged Welles's reputation at RKO and his contract was terminated. Some of Welles's theatrical credits as director include: Macbeth (1936), The Cradle Will Rock (1937), Native Son (1941),Othello (1951), and King Lear (1956). Notable film credits include: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Jane Eyre (1944), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), which co-starred his former wife, Rita Hayworth, The Third Man (1949), Touch of Evil (1958), and Chimes at Midnight (1966).

Orson's Shadow

Act III

Rehearsal photos

"We're two weeks in..."

"You see, Sir Laurence, orson feels you ruined him in Hollywood in 1948."

"Might I just ask one thing, Orson."

"...really a moment of some opportunity..."

'Dust."

"How do I dust."

"Shut up, I know the line."

Orson's tea party

Orson needs longer breaks when he's a hack.

"Orson, I know my limitations."

Ken's emphysema attack

"I am a giant in chains!"

Larry gets it.

but he doesn't want to catch "the plague"

The two Mrs. Oliviers

remembering summers at Notley

Vivien's mania begins to emerge

Vivien breaks down

invoking the curse of The Scottish Play

aftermath

firing orson