Directors
David Harrold, Sylvia Pepper
Tel: 01707 266688
Email: info@cadcoproductions.co.uk
Directors
David Harrold, Sylvia Pepper
Tel: 01707 266688
Email: info@cadcoproductions.co.uk
The man who was the voice of Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book was brought down from the silver screen in all his chauvinistic, caddish charm in David Harrold's fascinating one-man character study. While the whole school for scoundrels has made a comeback in recent years thanks to PC-backlash lads' magazines, many would probably still scratch their head at the mention of George Sanders.
However, acknowledgement may be forthcoming upon the mention of Shere Khan or of films such as All About Eve, for which he won an Oscar in 1950.
Harrold portrays Sanders in the twilight of his career on the set of 1958's Solomon and Sheba after the death of its leading man Tyrone Power.
Set in his trailer between takes, Sanders lets rip on the falsities and back-slapping hypocrisy of Hollywood in an aridly crisp sardonic style, sparing sympathy for his fellow actors, including Power and Marilyn Monroe.
What raises this from a bog-standard clutch of anecdotes, though, is Harrold's towering performance. Solo shows are tough sells at the best of times but Harrold was captivating in a lead which demanded he be exuberant one minute and quietly melancholic the next.
But the best part was when he got a member of the audience to go through his lines with him before dragging him on stage to act as an extra in period costume.
George Sanders committed suicide in 1972 because he was bored but this show does its best to ensure he and his performances will not be forgotten.
This unusual and entertaining one-man show, devised and performed by David Harrold, draws its material from the life of one of the greatest screen scoundrels of all time - the silky voiced cad George Sanders. It is set in Sander's star trailer on location for one of the many unmemorable films that this cynically prolific actor made. This rather confined theatrical locality fitted in admirably at the bijou Burton Taylor Theatre, which, though small, is extremely comfortable and boasts air-conditioning - a vast improvment when I remember the sweltering evenings I spent in there in days gone by.
David Harrold gives an excellent performance of the older, world-weary Sanders, full of stories about Hollywood characters, such as Douglas Fairbanks, Louis B. Meyer and Yul Brynner. An interesting and informed raconteur, he is rather like a sarcastic version of David Niven. There's also an interesting misogyny about his character, which he claims is a pose that has been hyped up in the media, while at heart he is really a romantic.
Yet his pithy observations on the opposite sex come through fairly regularly and pack quite a punch in these more politically correct days. But they are mostly very funny, especially when he speaks about his ex-wife Zsa Zsa Gabor. The overall impression given of Sanders is one of an honest man who is intelligent and self-aware enough to see through the showbiz nonsense, citing personal laziness as his main motivation for being in the movie business.
The production is of a very high standard, director Sylvia Pepper and her one-man cast have used much skill to create a confessional and intimate atmosphere, and the set design and lighting have gone a long way to enhance this. Clever use of music from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in the final scene deftly draws an interesting parallel between Pushkin's cynical anti-hero and the disillusioned and ultimately suicidal figure of Sanders.