Playing June 28 - July 21

WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION

The Pear is proud to collaborate with Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum for this world premiere production!

A Pear-approved gem, the museum features spectacular Chaplin & Keaton-era historical displays, artifacts, exhibits, souvenirs, and a charming, decades-old theater where classic silent films are screened on select Saturday nights. Be sure to give them a visit and a follow on Instagram and Facebook!

Learn more about Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum and their very special connection and relationship to the titular characters in Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight!

Special Events

• Sunday, July 7th: join us for a post-show talkback on the rich history of the silent film era and insight on Charlie Chaplin’s special Bay Area connection with Niles Film Museum spokespersons and film historians, Rena and David Kiehn!

A note from the playwright

“…the theme I was most interested in exploring: The weight that an artist feels in creating their work. Is it enough to just entertain? Do you have to maintain a legacy? Do you have to instruct, edify, inform? The two performers personified the different poles of that question.

Keaton, so brilliant and innovative, but never do you feel that his films are ever about anything beyond entertainment. Chaplin, equally capable of entertaining the audience, transforming with the advent of sound films to speaking out on the issues that concerned him to the furor of the red-hunting FBI.

In a time period where political radicalization is heightening, can you afford to take a public stand with the platform you are given? Can you afford not to?” - Greg Lam | Playwright, Chaplin & Keaton on the Set of Limelight

About the playwright

Greg Lam is a playwright, screenwriter, podcaster and board game designer who lives in the Bay Area. Greg is the co-founder of the Asian-American Playwright Collective, a member of The Pulp Stage Writer's Room, Playground SF, and the administrator of The Pear Theatre's Playwright Guild. Greg writes, largely, full-length epics which combine grinding moral quandaries with science fiction, short plays that are comic romps, and one-minute plays which are incredibly depressing. For more about Greg, see https://greglam.wixsite.com/home.

Synopsis

What would it be like to witness two geniuses at work? Silent Comedy legends Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton worked together only once. For the deeply autobiographical Limelight, Chaplin cast the down-on-his-luck Keaton to play a small part in his nostalgic story of an old comedian doing one last performance. This play imagines what it might have been like on that set while exploring the lives of these two titans of cinema as Chaplin deals with rising political intolerance and Keaton dreams of a comeback.

Greg Lam’s Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight explores the tension between the desire to entertain and the need to fight for a greater world in politically dangerous times. What responsibilities does an artist have beyond bringing a smile to the face of an audience?

Chaplin & Keaton will tickle your funny bone, stir your soul, and tug at your heartstrings!

"This is a very funny and poignant play about funny people who either want to change the world or make them laugh. I laughed. I cried. I look at things differently. Bravo.” - New Play Exchange

“The audience is faced with a very difficult question: in times of political darkness and uncertainty, what is the job of artists? To simply entertain? Or to reach for something deeper, more profound? This is an important piece for today's political climate.” - New Play Exchange

“Highly theatrical storytelling, with ‘silent’ sequences that give us the creative world of these geniuses as they work through their differences. Compelling and remarkable.” - New Play Exchange

“Greg Lam's play about film legends Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton is a truly magical experience in the writing, the characterizations, the risks he takes with time and place and movement, and the depth of feeling one is left with for both of these men, genius's in their own right, yet so different in their approach to comedy. Beautifully done.” - New Play Exchange

Cast

David Scott.........………………...….. Charles Chaplin
David Boyll...........…………………..… Buster Keaton
Lorie Goulart.....………………………..….…. Beverly
Selin Sahbazoglu…….. Claire Bloom / Oona Chaplin
Anthony Castillon..…………………….... Stone Face
Skylar Rose Adams……………………………The Girl
Johnny Villar.....…………………….…….. The Tramp

Production Team

Director: Sinohui Hinojosa
Stage & Production Manager: Kelly Weber Barraza
Set Design: Louis Stone-Collonge
Lighting Design: Sinjin Jones
Costume Design: Melissa Wilson
Sound Design: Sinjin Jones
Intimacy Coordinator: Arcadia Conrad

Rating

PG-13 for adult themes.

Runtime

Approximately 2 hours with a 15 minute intermission.

Reviews & Press

"a fascinating, educating, and highly entertaining world premiere… How lucky is the San Francisco Bay Area to be home to such talent as playwright Greg Lam as well as to The Pear Theatre.

'Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight,' [is] a new play that much deserves a full audience each night of its run." - Eddie Reynolds, Theatre Eddys. Read the full review!

"The play will captivate audiences... People will think that the screen legends are among them; the actors nailed their voices and expressions effortlessly." - Brandon Roth, Los Altos Town Crier | The drama speaks in ‘Chaplin & Keaton on the Set of Limelight’. Read the full review!

"While the play is set in a bygone era, the issues are as relevant today as they were then. [This play] will certainly make you think as you are laughing... The Pear Theatre brings unique and amazing productions to the Bay Area." - Jeryl Moy, Splash Magazines | “Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight” at the Pear Theatre – Don’t Miss It! Read the full review!

Pear Theatre Premieres ‘Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight’ - Addie Mahmassani, Metro Silicon Valley