Simon Callow @ Norwich Playhouse
An engaging and informative evening
Simon Callow describes his series of 27 theatre dates for One Man Band as 'a book tour', but this show is far more than just a series of readings and a chance to sell signed copies. Simon is certainly one of our best-loved performers from film, stage and television but, as The Times pointed out, “Callow is not simply a terrific actor who happen to write – you could as well call him a terrific writer who happens to act.” And that is exactly what we get when Simon Callow takes the stage at the Norwich Playhouse and speaks for two hours, without prompting, auto-cue or feed-questioning, on the life and career of Orson Welles.
One Man Band is Callow's third published work in a series devoted to Welles. In spite of the title of tonight's performance (for that is what it is – Callow's rich baritone voice and entertaining style of delivery makes this far more than an a dry academic lecture) the evening concentrates almost exclusively on the first two volumes of the trilogy. The initial segment of the show commences with a modest explanation of Callow's own literary process, but then recounts the early life and career of Orson Welles up as far as the release of Citizen Kane in 1941 (as covered in the book The Road to Xanadu). After the interval Callow continues with the years up until 1966 and the release of Chimes at Midnight (described in Hello Americans).
The fact that the following twenty years of Welles' life are barely touched upon is no doubt a ploy to whet the appetite and therefore to stimulate interest (and therefore sales) in One Man Band, but is equally a consequence of the figurative enormity of the subject. During the course of the evening we are hit with a gargantuan barrage of factual information, supplemented with a bare minimum of opinion or heresay. That in itself pays tribute to Callow's consolidated skills as both performer and informer.
During a brief Q and A session the question is asked as to whether Callow thought he would have liked Orson Welles had he have met him. The answer appeared to perfectly sum up the complexity and genius of the man. “Yes”, Callow replied, “To have met him when everything was going well would probably have led me to like him. But not necessarily for the remainder.”
An engaging and informative evening, perfectly pitched by one of my own personal favourite actors.
