Bio
Andrew Edlin is best known for his portrayal of Sir Winston Churchill in the play Churchill which he authored. The most frequent and compelling response from audiences to this one man play is “A great show – I was inspired”.
Andrew also offers educational outreach addresses such as ‘Churchill and Leadership’, keynote speeches, and after-dinner and corporate programs.
In 2012 he produced and co-directed his abridgment of Shakespeare’s King Lear in which he played the title role.
Andrew Edlin has performed in over 30 stage productions including Mr. Badger in Toad of Toad Hall; Erronius in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest; Sir Robert Chiltern in An Ideal Husband; Harpagon the Miser in The Miser; Munro Murgatroyd the villain in the melodrama Dirty Work at the Crossroads; Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady; Mr. Bumble in Oliver!; Drake the Butler in Annie; The Steward in Into the Woods; Sebastian in The Tempest; Egeus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Mittler in Force of Nature; Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace; Major Metcalf in The Mousetrap; Frank Gilbreth Senior in Cheaper by the Dozen; six characters in The Dining Room, both the Narrator and M. D’Arque the asylum keeper in Beauty and the Beast, and Mike in the musical Freaky Friday.
Edlin was born in Brighton, England. His grandfather was the actor Tubby Edlin. He was educated at Cranleigh School, Surrey, and went on to Magdalen College, Oxford University where he received a scholarship in Modern History. He graduated with a degree in Psychology and Philosophy. Some of the early productions in which Andrew Edlin appeared include Peter Shaffer’s The Royal Hunt of the Sun (the opening speech is still his go-to monologue), Rolf Hochhuth’s harrowing Holocaust drama The Representative, Christopher Fry’s A Sleep of Prisoners and as a starving peasant in Boris Godunov.
He studied the Sanford Meisner Technique with Steve White, and voice training with Mike Jewell, Doug Daller and David Malis.
Andrew moved to the United States in 1990. He has two grown children, and two granddaughters. He lives with his wife, Tena, in Fairfield, Iowa.
Photos
Quotes
Quotes from the play:
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
“You can always trust America to do the right thing – after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”
“I have often had to eat my own words, and have found them a wholesome diet.”
“If we fail, then the whole world will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”
“If Hitler had invaded Hell, I would have at least made a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”
Reviews
“A marvelous show. From start to finish, our audience was hanging on every word. Every line, delivered perfectly by Mr. Edlin, was an insight into history and into the remarkable man who was Winston Churchill. There was laughter, tears, and moments of thoughtful silence as the esteemed British statesman graced our stage”
– Warren Cultural Center, Greenfield IA
“For the opening weekend, Churchill sold out almost every night! We couldn’t have been happier with the turn out. The packed houses roared with laughter and were charmed with the funny stories. After each performance, the writer and sole performer, Andrew Edlin, would sit down on the stage and have a talk back with the audience. Each talk back was uniquely stirring and lasted almost half an hour!”
– Old Creamery Theater
“The stirring performance was everything we’d hoped for – and then some”
– Arkansas State University, Mountain Home
“The acting was so good within a minute I had forgotten it wasn’t the man himself”
“Andrew Edlin is spellbinding as Winston Churchill…fascinating, hilarious and dramatic…a truly remarkable play”
“Edlin is in perfect control of his character. He is stubborn. He is aroused. He is loving. He is sad. He is irritated. He sobs. He jokes. He is regretful. He is proud. He is Churchill.”
– Premiere at Odyssey Stage, 1997
“Entertaining, informative and inspiring…Churchill has much to teach us about courage, determination, and political savvy”
“Incredible – quite on par with, even above – other professional touring acts we have brought in”
– Bluff City Theater, Hannibal MO
“Edlin has Churchill down pat… his delivery was spot on… delivered it to a full roar from an appreciative house”
– Banners at McNeese, Lake Charles LA
Synopsis
Big Ben strikes 10, and the first of many overhead images, and a BBC radio broadcast, set the scene that Sir Winston Churchill, aged 80, is pondering in his bunker ‘to go or not to go’ as Prime Minister. Churchill is very skeptical of his successor Anthony Eden – ‘he’s too nice’ – and somewhat of President Eisenhower – ‘Ike doesn’t get it’.
Churchill wryly and wittily reviews his life from birth, looking for evidence of what to do. He segues from wise observation, to funny story, to iconic speech, to pithy analysis of colleague and enemy alike. Churchill sentimentally recalls his socialite mother, his disapproving father, unhappy school life, marrying Clemmie, and his army career in Cuba, Africa, India and then Europe in World War One, becoming ever more at the center of events as a Member of Parliament, and then a Minister. As World War Two approaches, Churchill the orator, warns, and then leads, the free world against Hitler. He describes the alliance of necessity with Stalin – ‘if Hitler had invaded Hell, I would have at least made a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons’.
By the end of Act One, he has decided that he has to stay on. But he does not call his wife Clemmie…yet. ‘I’ll have my bath first, and then I’ll call her’. The lights come up on Act Two with Churchill off stage in the bath with the ‘phone ringing. On he comes in his bath towel. ‘Haven’t you ever seen a naked Prime Minister before?’ Churchill dresses, partly on stage, and reviews his relations with Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Truman, and those with his family. Emotionally, he speaks of his long dead father, whose love and approval Churchill has been trying to gain all his life. In an imagined exchange – ‘Is it enough, sir?’ – he finally gains the permission to rest and retire that he has been craving. He ‘phones Eden, and then Clemmie – ‘Yes, you were right!’ – and the play closes with some classic Churchillian advice – ‘Never flinch, never weary, never despair’ –
And, of course, a cigar.