Orson Welles: The Blessed and the Damned

A miracle in Hollywood and a Faustian bargain; this is Orson Welles’ The Blessed and the Damned, a double bill of dazzling short plays showcasing his trademark wit and verve, published in English for the first time.

A miracle in Hollywood and a Faustian bargain; this is Orson Welles’ The Blessed and the Damned, a double bill of dazzling short plays showcasing the legendary director’s trademark wit and bravura. In The Unthinking Lobster, a brilliant satire on Hollywood’s vogue for religious movies, a secretary thrust into the showbiz limelight mysteriously develops the same healing powers as the saintly character she has unexpectedly been asked to play. While in Time Runs, Welles takes on Doctor Faustus by way of Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno with characteristic audacity, in a mischievous retelling of Marlowe’s classic.

The two plays were performed in Paris in 1950 with a starry cohort of collaborators including Jean Cocteau, Duke Ellington and Eartha Kitt. Never-before-published in English, these enduring theatrical capers reveal yet another side of the multi-talented auteur’s flair for high-stakes drama with plenty of comedic flourishes.