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June 16 @ 23:30
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I supppse that if I hadn’t watched as much silent film in the last seven years as I have, then The Artist would definitely have blown my mind.  I think I would have been surprised by how much can be conveyed without words, how deep a story that can be told, when the actors have to express what they are saying through non-verbal means.  As Amanda pointed out, there’s a joy in The Artist, and an engagement with the audience as they invest themselves in the creation of the story and the characters.

Read the full post here.

Keystone Theatre is a Dora Award-winning company that uses mime, dance and a measure of clowning to take us back to the comic worlds of Red Skelton, Ed Wynn and Lucille Ball.

This is comedy without words. Think silent screen pleasure.

It’s blessed with the lightning fingers of David Atkinson coaxing from an upright piano, sounds of pain and delirious invention.

There are snatches of The Jitterbug and Nature Boy lurking in the musical shadows of his witty score.

The performers are brilliant. Dana Fradkin’s Penelope is sweet and sad. Janick Hebert’s Minion is outrageously campy.

Stephen LaFrenie’s Devil? Think Bela Lugosi without quirky excess. Add Phil Rickaby as Gormless Joe and you have an everyman in love with life.

The Last Man on Earth is art, pure and simple.

Warning: this review contains an obscene count of the word adorable. There really is no better word to describe it.

The performance is staged as a live-action silent film. There are no words said aloud, but there is the occasional text block and adorable mouthing of words. David Atkinson sets each scene to his witty, well-timed piano playing, with a few post-modern touches as he changes up a bar or three to reflect the scene’ s events or interact with the Devil himself.

Toronto, April 27 2011 – After the success of 2009’s Dora Award winning production of The Belle of Winnipeg, Keystone Theatre returns to the stage with a new play in the style of a silent film, The Last Man On Earth at the 2011 Toronto Festival of Clowns.

Phil Rickaby as Gormless Joe

In The Last Man on Earth, Gormless Joe just may be the last innocent man on earth! When The Devil makes it his mission to corrupt this last vestage of innocence the battle lines are drawn. Will Joe give in to The Devil’s taunts or will he loose his one chance at love. Dora Award-Winning Keystone Theatre brings to the stage a new play in the style of a silent film. Co-created by Phil Rickaby, Dana Fradkin, Stephen LaFrenie, Janick Hebert, Ginette Mohr (Director), Richard Beaune (Dramaturg/Artistic Director) David Atkinson (Music) & Kimberly Beaune (Stage Manager/Production Manager).

During the creation process, short documentary video segments will be presented at http://www.youtube.com/keystonetheatre

The Last Man on Earth will premiere on June 2, 2011 at 6:30 PM as the opening show of the Toronto Festival of Clowns, at the Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement (6 Noble Street, Toronto, ON). Tickets are $10 and available at the door; reserve your tickets at tickets@keystonetheatre.net, or 416-821-3833.

About Keystone Theatre
Keystone Theatre creates, develops and presents new performances inspired by the silent film era. Reaching back to the earliest recorded work and taking our cues from the masters of physical comedy, Keystone Theatre reinvents acting styles that are universally accessible and visually profound. Using our unique physical vocabulary to create characters and develop narratives, Keystone Theatre explores performance styles in multiple media; including theatre, film and music, sometimes all at once.

About the Festival of Clowns
Founded in 2006 by Dave McKay, Sarah Buski and Adam Lazarus, Toronto Festival of Clowns provides new and established clowns and physical performers the opportunity to create and showcase they work. The festival also aims to create awareness of the various forms of physical theatre that are encompassed under the umbrella of “clown”, such as red-nose, mime, bouffon, busking, movement, slapstick, commedia del arte, vaudeville, mask and character work. For more information, go to http://www.torontoclown.com