Churchill Educates and Entertains

Andrew Edlin

by Genevieve Heinrich

Coralville — No one would ever dream of calling me an historian. What I knew about Winston Churchill before tonight was about 10% high school and 90% Doctor Who. While I realize this revelation hardly casts me in a positive light, I make it so that you will all be aware that Churchill, written and performed by Andrew Edlin, is not merely for the well-informed. History geeks would, I'm sure, get much more depth of enjoyment from it than I did... but that's a bonus for them, not a drawback for the rest of us.

Edlin creates a Churchill who is more than just a character sketch. He is a vibrant and conflicted man facing perhaps the most challenging decision of his career - whether or not to retire. In its purest moments, Churchill is an exploration of obligation. It is not vanity that drives him to proclaim that he is still needed. It's a passionate desire to serve as fully as he is capable. "They all want me to go," Churchill says of his colleagues and family, "but they could all be wrong."

Churchill Opens February 1

Andrew Edlin

Coralville - Fairfield, Iowa based writer and performer Andrew Edlin will perform his play Churchill at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 2 at 2 p.m.

Edlin stars as the charismatic statesman, orator, and wit Sir Winston Churchill in a powerful performance seguing from iconic speeches to private revelations, from witty stories to brilliant commentary.

It is April 1955. Churchill, aged 80, agonizes in his wartime bunker below London whether to finally resign as Prime Minister as the Cold War gathers pace. He is old and tired, but it becomes clear that personal issues will affect his ability to let go. As he tries to decide, he rolls back the years and reviews his uniquely eventful career, filled with history-changing events and people, glorious speeches, pithy comments, funny stories, his checkered relationship with his family, and all the wit and wisdom that has made Churchill an imperishable legend.