Charlie Chaplin gets his due in new production
Plenty of plays have been adapted into movies. And plenty of movies have been adapted in the opposite direction, back to the stage. Think "The Producers." Or "A Christmas Story." But not many silent films have been made into plays.
That is, not until now. The Chicago-based Silent Theatre Company specializes in creating plays from classic silent films.
Its first production, the critically acclaimed "Lulu: a Black and White Silent Play," was based in part on the classic 1929 silent movie "Pandora's Box." The show was so successful it ended up touring for the last two years to San Francisco and New York before returning to Chicago. Silent Theatre Company's current show, "A Charlie Chaplin Christmas," opens tonight at the Studio Theatre in the Chicago Cultural Center.
Like "Lulu," "A Charlie Chaplin Christmas" is based on the idea of re-creating on stage the look of a silent movie. "We make it completely monochrome," director Tonika Todorova said, referring to the fact that all clothing and sets are black or white and all actors wear white makeup to approximate the look of old silent film stock.
The premise of the play is that a movie production company, in the silent film era, wants to make a movie but can't get funding. "Out of despair," Todorova said, "they tell their potential backers that they have Charlie Chaplin in their film." The film follows the comedy that ensues when the company tries to find a Chaplin look-alike for the film.
One of the inspirations for the play, which Todorova also wrote in collaboration with her ensemble, was an incident in which Chaplin himself showed up for a Chaplin imitation contest … and came in third place. Among the imitation Chaplins that run through this comedy may be the "real" one.
But Todorova's production is packed with references to Chaplin's graceful, dancelike comedies -- and outright lifts from his films. "I watched 40 of his short films and his longer silent films," Todorova said. "'Modern Times.' 'City Lights.' 'The Gold Rush.' 'The Kid.' And we borrowed a lot from those films. For example, we have a scene inspired by a barber shop sequence in 'The Great Dictator.'
"I originally wanted to make a play that paid homage to Chaplin," Todorova said, "and have an older version of Charlie Chaplin talking about his life." But after working on the project for a while,Todorova decided that was not the route to take.
Still, she wanted to do something with the actor who, along with Buster Keaton, is considered one of the kings of silent comedy. So Todorova began thinking about Chaplin's career and about all the one- and two-reel comedies he made in the years just before and after World War I
"I kept wondering what if Chaplin had made one Christmas film," Todorova said. "He might have called it 'A Tramp's Christmas.' They produce a Christmas film that may or may not star Charlie Chaplin. So this play is the Christmas movie Chaplin never made."
• "A Charlie Chaplin Christmas" opens at 7:30 p.m. today at the Studio Theater in the Chicago Cultural Center, 66 E. Randolph St., and runs through Jan. 6. For tickets, call (312) 742-8497.