Playwright: Paul Peditto
At: Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston
Phone: 773-539-7838; $20
Runs through: Feb. 25
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
It's still there in Uptown, protected by the Landmarks Commission—the laboratory that transformed Edison's toy into the entertainment called 'movies.' Here was born the filmed narrative and the stock characters we know today—the man of action, the suave leading man, the patrician leading lady, the sweet ingenue and the grotesque clowns. Broncho Billy Anderson captured rustlers in Rogers Park; Ben Turpin careened down Wells Street on roller skates; Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne sipped cocktails at the Green Mill Lounge; Gloria Swanson was coaxed away from her mother's Southport Street bakery, and Charlie Chaplin away from Hollywood at a salary surpassing any in the fledgling industry.
A full account of this brief—barely a decade long—period could fuel its own miniseries. ( Ever wonder why the Lincoln Park Zoo's gorilla was named Bushman? ) However, playwright Paul Peditto has winnowed his material down to a lean piece that clocks in at just over two hours. Sounds Of Silents is not simply nostalgic documentary, however: As recounted by Peditto, the fortunes of the business founded by George K. Spoor and G.M. Anderson ( né Max Aaronson, 'S & A' Films becoming 'Essanay' ) serve to illustrate the course of American industry at the dawn of the 20th-century. To Spoor, movies were products to be sold. To Anderson, they were a comfortable way of making a living. But to Chaplin, they were art—to be preserved and cherished.
Much cherishing has also gone into this Prop Thtr production: Co-directors Scott Vehill and Shannon Evans keep the tempo brisk. Set designer Rick Paul's environmental collage is as visually engaging—cheerier, too—as a Keinholtz installation. Cinema footage by Rodolfo Polanco, Jessica Santillanes and Chloe Honeyman-Bloede—collectively, We're So Screwed Films—replicates the 16-frames-per-second action so accurately that only close scrutiny of the actors' faces distinguishes it from the real thing ( especially the sequences featuring Anthony Tournis, revealing hitherto underutilized talents as the visionary Chaplin ) . And then there's Chris Walz' cleverly-selected score of incidental music, interpreted sensitively by Mark Chrisler and Jim Pizzillo.
Scheduled to run until Feb. 25, Sounds of Silents risks being elbowed aside by the sellout crowds for Hizzoner ( most of whom, at the performance I attended, were unaware of the two theaters under the same roof ) . That's a shame, since the care and quality displayed in this long-delayed world-premiere presentation more than justifies the trek to its chilly quarters on Elston Avenue.