Orson's Shadow
Failed to add items
Add to cart failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with Audible free trial
New to Audible Prime Member exclusive: 2 credits with free trial
Buy Now for ₹377.32
-
Narrated by:
-
full cast
-
Written by:
-
Austin Pendleton
Sir Laurence Olivier. Orson Welles. Vivien Leigh. Joan Plowright. Kenneth Tynan. When these champions of the theatre get together to rehearse Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, mere mortals best step aside. With lightning wit and scathing insight into the true nature of genius, Austin Pendleton’s play opens the private worlds of these very public people, exposing their warmth, their egos, and their glittering madness.
Directed by Rosalind Ayres
Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg
An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:
Caroline Goodall as Joan Plowright
Glenne Headly as Vivien Leigh
Martin Jarvis as Laurence Olivier
Robert Machray as Orson Welles
Orlando Seale as Sean Simon
Templeman as Kenneth Tynan
Associate Producer: Susan Raab
Recording Engineer/Sound Designer/Editor: David Kelly for Voice Box Studios
Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in February 2003.
©2006 Austin Pendleton (P)2003 L.A. Theatre WorksEditorial Reviews
Austin Pendleton's fascinating and entertaining play uses the 1960 London rehearsals of a production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros as the context for an exploration of celebrity vs. artistry, survival vs. self-destruction, and most of all, betrayal of others vs. betrayal of one's artistic gifts. It's a backstage story of celebrities: Orson Welles (Robert Machray), whose career has waned, is directing Laurence Olivier (Martin Jarvis) in Ionesco and longing for the money to do a film about Shakespeare's Falstaff. The superb vocal performances of the entire cast make for an enthralling listening experience. Robert Machray and Martin Jarvis are uncanny at capturing the sounds and rhythms of Welles's and Olivier's memorable voices and at bringing these giants to life.