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Me and Orson Welles Explores a Moment in History
Richard Linklater’s new film offers a glimpse of the last gleam of theater’s reign
Christian McKay in a scene from Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles (Photo: Liam Daniel)
In a modern age when the movie industry has taken over as the king of entertainment, it isn’t often that we are reminded of a time when theater was the biggest kid on the block. Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles gives moviegoers a glimpse into a week in 1937—a historical precipice that in hindsight would act as the last gleam of theater’s reign before Tinstletown took strong hold in the 1940s. In the film, Orson Welles (who himself would ride the movie wave four short years later, making Citizen Kane, the film many critics regard as the best film ever made) is presenting the Broadway premiere of Shakespeare, a re-envisioning of Julius Ceasar.
After casting the determined young actor Richard Samuels (Zach Efron) as Lucillus, Welles (Christian McKay) proves himself equally charismatic and cruel, a sort of svengali of the stage, as he attempts to stake his place in the world of directing. The movie gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the preparation of a theatrical production. It is as much coming of age love story (along the way, Efron’s Richard falls for Sonja Jones, a gung-ho older production assistant played by Claire Danes) as it is a long poem to theater. Movie viewers have rarely been given this kind of a peek into the world of the stage, and to granted access into a seminal moment in American theater.
Beyond the breadth and depth of the historical context, the acting in the film is truly captivating. Christian McKay, discovered while portraying Welles in a one-man stage show, is spot-on as the legend—watching his passion and prowess is like being transported in a time machine. Danes is infectious as the unapologetically determined Sonja. And Efron, most well known for his turn in the Disney franchise High School Musical, is effective as a leading man.
Me and Orson Welles will be released in November 2009.