Submitted by Merrimack Reper... on
The days of vaudeville into silent films was filled with images of actors like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. “Fatty” was a comedian, director and screen writer who earned, and lost, millions during the golden age of jazz and silent films.
The MRT rehearsals for Lost Laughs: The Slapstick Tragedy of Fatty Arbuckle presented an artistic challenge for the crew and actors. There was much involved to bring silent film slapstick into a creative production on the stage. You will see the amazing results by a very talented designer crew, Director Nathan Keepers, playwright Andy Bayiates (born in Lowell) and appreciate the era stunningly performed by playwright and actor Aaron Muñoz, and actor Kristen Mengelkoch.
Slapstick comedy is a fun-filled cascade of stunts and mayhem that require physical endurance. Fatty was portly, which he used as the image for his comedic creativity doing tumbles, jumps, chases with innocent looks and smiles. There are moments of “talking” by background music to reflect the theme and pace of the story. If you know Keystone Kops you know the comedy of Fatty Arbuckle.
Few knew and loved both Roscoe the man and Fatty the actor better than his wife. Yet, it was a wild time so being married was a struggle they lost. Fatty had popularity as a performer and enjoyed the wild lifestyle of the rich and famous. It was the twenties during prohibition, and Fatty and his friends knew how to party. When he held a weekend raucous party in a hotel with large quantities of liquor for his many friends, there was an incident that changed Fatty’s life forever.
You may know, Fatty was accused in the death of a young woman, but not the details of that evening and beyond. The trials depleted his funds then, sadly, he could no longer get anyone to laugh and his career was destroyed. MRT will bring you back to that time when the coverage of the story and public reaction was fierce, and Fatty was seen as a human being with a voice, rather than a silent slapstick on a screen.
–Gail Gauthier, Cohort
Lost Laughs… runs February 14 – March 11