BWW Reviews: CHURCHILL Paints a Bland Picture

What is it about actors who bear some resemblance to famous historical figures that inspires so many of them to write and star in solo plays about them? (Yes, yes, I know.)

That's not to doubt Ronald Keaton's sincere interest in the life on Winston Churchill or his belief that Great Britain's prime minister during World War II would be a prime central figure for drama, but the author/performer's Churchill, partially based on Dr. James C. Humes' teleplay, Winston Churchill, is a bland and tensionless affair that offers little more than a career rundown piecing together notable quotes.

The play begins in 1946, with Churchill in retirement after his Conservative Party was soundly defeated in the country's first post-war election. Standing before an easel and painting a landscape for relaxation, he notices the audience as American visitors and begins warmly chatting of remembrances.

His highborn upbringing and early career episodes are only a prelude to more interesting matters once war breaks out between England and Germany and he must consider the lives of his country's young men while working in cooperation with his allies. From there the evening builds to his famous Iron Curtain speech regarding the Soviet Union's Eastern Bloc.

Under Kurt John's direction, Keaton is a credible Winston Churchill, but the script rarely allows him to be an intriguing one.

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