‘Silent Laughter’
by Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore
Directed by Paul Olding and Matt Nation 10-13 November 2010
Inspired by Charlie Chaplin and the legends of pre-talky film, SILENT LAUGHTER brings roaring-20’s silent movie mayhem live to the stage. New York audiences went wild for this gag-filled water sloshing, bed crashing, pie throwing craziness. Performed in black and white with title cards projected over the actors’ heads, and a live theatre organ accompanying every doubletake, this comic tour de force stars a dashing hero who overcomes jail, poverty, World War I and a dastardly villain, Lionel Drippinwithit, to win the girl of his dreams. She is the heiress to the Thickwad Screw Factory, a firm that has been “Screwing the American Public since 1861.” The biggest pie fight the theatre world has ever seen caps the silent action. More than a tribute to the slapstick antics of Chaplin, Keaton and Arbuckle – this is a reverential recreation of a bygone era.