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Life & Arts

'Shadow' may leave audiences in the dark

Pendleton's work focuses on film legend Welles' personality

by JAMES DAVIS
The Daily Cougar

Orson's Shadow, by Austin Pendleton, speaks to a certain age when Vivien Leigh's face was as universally recognized as Julia Roberts' is today. The script displays intimate familiarity with a small group of artists who defined the stage and screen of their generation. In fact, Pendleton paints the play's characters with such intricate detail that they are almost impenetrable.

The Alley Theatre stages this drama with skill. Technically polished, the production runs seamlessly at a pace that threatens to leave the audience behind. The first scene introduces Ken (Jeffery Bean), a theater and film critic and the play's narrator, who quickly bombards the audience with exposition: The year is 1960; Orson Welles is a monumental film director recently estranged from Hollywood; he blames this estrangement on Lawrence Olivier, the legendary British actor, who is referred to throughout the play as Larry; Orson plans to mount a production of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros. That's only scratching the surface of this circuitous plot. From the beginning, Pendleton provides plenty to work with.

Establishing the relationships among the characters and the circumstances of Welles' production may not be Shadow director David Cromer's focus. What comes across most forcefully in this show is not the story but the performances. Wilbur Edwin Henry plays the title role with command, delivering Orson's speech with a resonant, musical bellow. He switches between complete composure and egomaniacal rage almost imperceptibly. He allows the audience to see in Orson, not a biography, but an accumulation of peculiarities. 

The same vividness captivates the audience in Larry, whom James Black plays with his usual manic intensity. Lawrence Olivier earned his renown by speaking the English language, and the way Black rants through Larry's elevated, impassioned, almost foreign dialogue demonstrates both men's skill as linguists.

The other standout performance comes from Elizabeth Heflin's portrayal of Vivien Leigh. The script radically humanizes the actress behind Scarlett O'Hara, exposing her troubled health, both physical and psychological, and Heflin exhibits the immortal and vulnerable sides of her character during her brief appearances onstage. Her nervous breakdown near the end of the show is spectacular in the truest sense of the word.

Watching these personalities compete makes this production exciting, and some great choices are made with lighting, sound and scenic design. However, the show's overall theme and feeling are a little elusive. The audience witnesses much conflict --between Ors on and Larry, between classicism and modernism, between health and illness -- but it all points in different directions.

As it began, the play ends with direct narration, detailing the course of the characters' lives until their deaths. The audience is bid goodnight, and there is a dramatic blackout. Pendleton suggests a sort of objectivism; to see a faithful, realistic enactment of these artists' lives at this particular occasion is satisfaction enough. Perhaps Pendleton's familiarity with his subject matter alienated him from his audience, but the final impression of the show is a little shallow. It's strange and fascinating in its truthfulness, but ultimately esoteric and distant.

Orson's Shadow runs until April 30 at the Alley Theatre's Neuhaus Stage, 615 Texas Ave. For information on scheduling and ticket prices, visit www.alleytheatre.org or call (713) 228-8421.

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