Theatre review: Orson's Shadow

Just as there's a disproportionate amount of novels about writing novels, and films about making films, theatre too has a fondness for shining its light on itself. Austin Pendleton's off-Broadway hit Orson's Shadow, getting its London premiere at Southwark Playhouse in a production by Alice Hamilton, does so with a self-mocking wink at the big personalities and bigger egos the stage attracts: Laurence Olivier (Adrian Lukis) is soon to become the first-ever Artistic Director of the National Theatre, and the respected critic Kenneth Tynan (Edward Bennett - tonight half a dozen of last Christmas' RSC ensemble had come along to watch him) wants to be one of his advisors. But he doesn't really know Olivier that well, and to impress him he decides to find him a director for his latest project, the UK premiere of Ionesco's Rhinoceros at the Royal Court.

Theatre review: From Morning to Midnight

I strongly suspect the National has served up another helping of Marmite because as I left the Lyttelton after From Morning to Midnight I overheard someone say he'd definitely be recommending it to his friends; I for one won't be though. Georg Kaiser's 1912 play, in a text by Dennis Kelly, follows a cataclysmic day in the life of a bank Clerk (understudy Jack Tarlton) who, after misunderstanding the intentions of a beautiful Italian customer (Gina Bellman) steals sixty thousand marks from the bank. On realising the lady didn't mean for him to run away with him and a stolen fortune, he's left alone, suddenly a criminal, and possessed of a suitcase full of cash. He roams the city, and between his family, the spectators of a cycling race, the prostitutes and clientele of a brothel, and finally the denizens of a Salvation Army shelter, he attempts to find meaning to life, and where his new wealth places him in it.