In 1960 Orson Welles directed Laurence Olivier in Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros at the Royal Court Theatre. It was not a happy production. Olivier, who was in a relationship with Joan Plowright and steeling himself to make a final break with his manic-depressive wife, Vivien Leigh, humiliated Welles by banning him from the rehearsals.
Arthur Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow is fiction based on the above facts. The sparring of self-destructive egos provides plenty of opportunity for histrionics. The fact that the actors do not look and sound like the originals may worry some theatregoers; but it doesn’t really get in the way of the waspishness. John Hodgkinson as Orson and Edward Bennett as Kenneth Tynan are persuasive. Unfortunately, Olivier is caricatured both by the script and by the actor, Adrian Lukis.