Film / News
Slapstick gala shifts to the Hippodrome in February
Each January for the last 14 years, Bristol’s Slapstick Festival of silent and physical comedy has kicked off with a grand Colston Hall gala. Not next year, though. The Colston’s shutdown has presented Festival Director Chris Daniels with something of a challenge.
“The gala’s mix of silent comedy classics, a full orchestra, surprise guests and a star comedian as host means it is always our best attended event, regularly attracting an audience of well over 1,500 from all parts of Bristol and far beyond,” he explains. “Yet with Colston Hall temporarily out of action, there simply isn’t a suitably-sized alternative venue free during January’s festival weekend.”
Slapstick Festival Director Chris Daniels
Fortunately, the Hippodrome had a date available in February, so early next year we’ll be getting a double dose of mirth – albeit somewhat arse-about-tit in suitably comedic style. The main festival runs from Jan 18-20 at various venues across the city, with the full programme being revealed in October.
is needed now More than ever
Slapstick’s gala, meanwhile, will now take place on February 10 at the Hippodrome. Hosted by Marcus Brigstocke, its centrepiece this year is a screening of Chaplin’s 1936 classic Modern Times, accompanied live by the 40-piece Bristol Ensemble playing Chaplin’s own score for the film. This will be conducted by Guenter A Buchwald.
Inspired by the Great Depression and influenced in part by René Clair ‘s 1931 musical satire on industrial automation À Nous la Liberté (though Chaplin later claimed never to have seen it after the studio behind Clair’s flick consulted m’learned friends), Modern Times is often credited with being Chaplin’s first overtly political film. In his last appearance in his Little Tramp persona, he plays a factory worker who runs amok on an assembly line and is shipped off to an asylum. He had intended this to be his first ‘talkie’, but subsequently changed his mind, using sparse sound effects and limited dialogue instead. Modern Times received a mixed reception on release, but is now hailed as one of Chaplin’s greatest works and was designated ‘culturally significant’ by the US Library of Congress in 1989. As a fascinating footnote, the main theme of his own score was subsequently adapted to become the pop standard Smile, which was a hit for Nat King Cole and later recorded by Michael Jackson. Watch out too for a rare early cocaine gag.
The Slapstick gala also features pre-show entertainment by students of the Circomedia circus-theatre school; screenings, with music, of Bacon Grabbers (1929), starring Laurel & Hardy, and Buster Keaton’s The Scarecrow (1924); and comedy magic from John Archer – the first act on Jonathan Ross’s Penn and Teller: More Fool Us series to perform a trick that left the duo baffled.
Tickets are on sale now, priced from £21.50 to £42.50, and can be booked by calling in at the Hippodrome’s Box Office, telephoning 0844 871 7615 or by visiting the Slapstick website (where details of Gala VIP packages can also be found).
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