Charlie Chaplin: The Gold Rush

Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush is coming to the Crucible Theatre on Monday 19 October, with the silent film accompanied by a live score. It's a double bill of sorts: the film on screen and the music played right there in the room.

The Gold Rush (1925) is Chaplin's most ambitious silent comedy, and he called it 'the picture that I want to be remembered by'. It's based on the true stories of the prospectors who flocked to the Canadian Klondike in the late 19th century, and it follows two hapless prospectors along the way. It's Chaplin's most celebrated character, the little tramp, in a film that mixes acrobatic slapstick, poignant romance, high-octane dance and dazzling stunts. There are a few bits that have stuck in the public memory: the dancing dinner-rolls routine and the meal of a boiled shoe.

The music is a story in its own right. Chaplin edited the film for a 1942 re-release, adding sound effects, narration and a score that drew on Brahms, Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. Timothy Brock later reconstructed that score for the original silent version, and that's the one being played here. The music is provided by Ensemble 360 and friends, conducted by George Morton, a University of Sheffield alumnus and musical director of the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra. Morton has specialised in conducting for silent film for sixteen years, and this is the ensemble's most ambitious collaboration yet.

It starts at 19:15 at the Crucible Theatre, 55 Norfolk Street, S1 1DA. Tickets range from £5.00 to £23.00.