The great Orson Welles

There is a new book by Joseph McBride about the great auteur/moviestar/stage director entitled "What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?" (University of Kentucky Press, $29.95), but I am motivated to post this latest blog entry because of a fantastic production of the Austin Pendleton play "Orson's Shadow" that I saw last night at the Deep Dish Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC. (The roadside back to Reidsville was a bit of an adventure because I missed a fork in the road near Gibsonville but, well......never mind!). Both Pendleton's play and McBride's book deal with Welles' artistic inability of live up to making "Citizen Kane" (1941) in his mid-20s. Welles first gained notoriety before "Kane" by helming a radio theater version of H.G. Wells novel "War of the Worlds" which was so realistic that many people in New Jersey really believed their twon was being invaded by Martians... some even so far as to commit suicide! In the Deep Dish production, veteran stage actor Derrick Ivey was great as Welles. According to the playbill, he also has the distinction of playing Richard Nixon (arguably my 'favorite' Republican president) in a play called "Nixon's Nixon." The Pendleton play deals specifically with Welles coming to direct a stage version of the acclaimed play "Rhinoceros," which became a film starring Gene Wilder in the 1970s. That performance featured Welles' long-time rival Laurence Olivier and the two played out their feud while in rehearsal! Pendleton, also a veteran stage and screen actor, got the idea for the play by listening to Welles' rants while on the set of the 1970s movie "Catch-22." In an article in the current issue of "Film Comment," film scholar David Thompson, an irreverent figure in his own right, wrote about McBride's book. Thompson said that the book differs from some of McBride's other works on Welles in that it focuses on the last two decades of the legend's life. During this period, his only film of acclaim was the documentary "F is for Fake," and even that has his detractors. The Thompson piece reflects the British historian's own comments about Welles in his book "A Biographical Dictionary of Film" (1995), which my sister Lale got me for a birthday present several years ago. (She knows me well!). In that entry, Thompson stated the following about Welles: "But, so little of the life of Welles is all or anywhere near true. He inhaled legend- and changed our air. It is the greatest career in film, the most tragic, and the one with most warnings for the rest of us." The Pendleton play is also available in a CD version from LA Theatre Works. It is how I initially became aware of the work. I found it in the Salem Public Library in my hometown of Salem, Va. Deep Dish Theatre's next production will be of the acclaimed play "The Exonerated," which features real-life testimonials from individuals who were exonerated from death row. It has drawn considerable opposition of death penalty proponents because it is indeed a powerful, thought-evoking work which was made into a tv movie which aired on CourtTV (of all places!).

 

Useful Links:

Deep Dish Theatre: http://www.deepdishtheater.org

Film Comment: http://www.filmlinc.com

LA Theatre Works http://www.latw.org

And, of course, for Welles himself I'm sure you can google him, and get tons of info!