Pip Utton
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Pip Utton
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Edinburgh Fringe 2007 - Chaplin and AdolfPip is bringing his latest creation Chaplinand his much acclaimed Adolf to the Fringe this year. ChaplinCharlie Chaplin created The Tramp, one of the most famous cinema images of all time. And in doing so Chaplin trapped himself inside an image he never truly managed to succeed without. Chaplin was the outstanding genius of the silent movie era. The most famous man of his age. His genius raised early slapstick to a level of comedy setting the bench mark for future movie makers. But he never maintained that brilliance in the world of ‘talkies’. He had plenty he wanted to say, but sadly he never worked out how to say it. The Tramp never spoke, just one gibberish song, no more, and yet his films said more to their audience than Chaplin ever managed to do in his few talkies. Worshipped for his silent creation Chaplin never achieved the same critical and public acclaim in his other films. The Tramp made Chaplin the best known and best-paid film actor of his age. The Tramp opened the doors of society and celebrity to Chaplin and gave him a life style of endless young women and riches. The Tramp earned Chaplin the reputation of ‘genius’ and he propelled him into the worlds of intellectuals and royalty. Not bad for a street urchin brought up in the Dickensian slums and workhouses of late 19th century London! But His fondness for young ladies is legendary, he married two 16 year olds, and at the age of 54 married the 18 years old Oona. He was accused of sexual perversion by the press and the courts. He was vilified for his treatment of his ex-wives, and accused of being communist, he was investigated by McCarthy. In 1952 his American visa was revoked (he never became an American citizen, calling himself a ‘citizen of the world’) and he settled in Switzerland, where he lived for the rest of his life with Oona and their children. Chaplin remains one of the greatest clowns of all time. He created an image of himself for public consumption that hid the darker sides of his personality. In his new play Pip Utton steps in and out of the screen and becomes Charlie Chaplin, stripping away the myths and the moustache and revealing the man beneath. Reviews
*****The British Theatre Guide
2007
****One4review.com 2007
****Three Weeks 2007
FRINGEREVIEW.COM 2007
Writer's Note‘Chaplin’ is a gentle play; with I hope a little edge to it. Rather like Chaplin’s films.Most of my writing up till now has been far more confrontational. Chaplin didn’t work out that way. I didn’t feel the need to dwell over long on Chaplin’s career; why tell people what they already know? But of course it had to be part of the monologue. There was also no need to make the play revolve around his sexual appetites, or his supposed political leanings, but again they must be part. And of course I have had to come to some conclusions about all these things. They can neither be ignored nor dwelt on; the play has a limited timescale. So I have decided to begin with the older Chaplin on Christmas morning 1977, just one hour before he dies. I concerned myself with the frustration of being trapped within an image - the private man searching for public recognition for his ‘genius’, whilst the public the world over worshipped his creation – the Tramp. The Tramp was Chaplin but Chaplin wasn’t merely the Tramp. The Tramp is one of the most recognisable images ever. Charles Chaplin is not. This is the true nightmare of celebrity. Am I loved as myself or only as my work? Chaplin’s genius created the Tramp but he was encouraged by so much acclaim to believe that he was a ‘genius’ – full stop. Chaplin’s autobiography paints the picture that he wanted us to see. I think that he wanted us to be impressed by him as a truly great man. It contains many dubious claims about his past and leaves out much of importance. Even during his lifetime he was contradictory about much of the background to his life. He tried in fact to create his own history. Chaplin’s career in film spanned the first sixty years of the movie industry. During this time movie making took the medium from the very basic silents to the glories of stereo wide-screen Technicolor. Did Chaplin’s genius develop alongside or did it remain only in those early silents? It would take a much more talented, brave, and/or conceited man than me to attempt to imitate Charlie Chaplin on stage. In film Charlie Chaplin was a genius; in a world awestruck by the magic of film. On stage I can only hope to capture some of the spirit of the man, the private man haunted by and in conflict with the public image.
Director's NoteNot yet! Chaplin is supported by
AdolfThe Führer's bunker, Berlin 1945, the air is thick with betrayal as Hitler awaits the inevitable collapse of Berlin. The 20th Century’s most notorious tyrant is daringly and divisively brought to the stage in one of the most successful and powerful solo works ever presented. Pip Utton, looking uncomfortably like the Fuhrer, stands before a huge Nazi banner addressing his party faithful. He furnishes his audience with an acute anatomy of fascism; its ideological justifications; its poisoned utopias. They are in the presence of an utterly compelling idealist, and are helplessly drawn in to his warped logic. Hitler's final performance seems over as he settles into pre-suicidal contemplation. We know the rest... But Utton has reserved a sting for his tale... A sting so powerful that it pushes the audience into looking within themselves to question their own prejudices and intolerance./p> This is live theatre at its best with a theme and subject that touches us all. It is powerful, challenging and divisive, illustrative and educational. It is utterly provocative and totally necessary. Everyone should experience it. Reviews *****EdinburghGuide.com 2007"One of the most successful solo shows of the last decade..... In humanising a monster Pip Utton has created a piece of mind-bending theatre."
*****The British Theatre Guide
2007 Writer's NoteI was never an angry young man, I was a young Conservative. In the flower powered era of the 60’s my only rebellions were to smoke a pipe and like opera! But now I’m an angry middle-aged man. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not just a grumpy old git bemoaning how out of place I’ve become in today’s world; a world that will never ever be as polite, calm and respectful as it was in those golden days not so long ago. I know those golden days never existed. And I’m angry that today’s world seems to have learnt so little from the mistakes of yesterday’s world. Not only have we not learned from them we seem intent on repeating them! I think it was Tony Benn who said “All we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” The rise of Adolf Hitler and his crusade of evil provides us with the clearest example of how people’s prejudices and fears can be exploited; it illustrates how intolerances can be exploited and manipulated to devastating effect. It would be too easy to illustrate how little ‘Hitlers’ have sprung up all over today’s world, how the phrase ‘ethnic cleansing’ has become an almost sanitised everyday news item from somewhere in the world we couldn’t pinpoint on a map. And most of the time, unless there appears to be some financial benefit in the future - oil, minerals, gas - our governments do little to challenge them. What is as disturbing is how we hear little ‘Hitlers’ all around us, everyday. Niggling away about immigrants and the unemployed, exploiting any imagined threat to our privileged way of life. And most of the time most of us (I include myself) say nothing to challenge them. Writing and performing Adolf was and is my small very inadequate way of saying something, of setting out a warning to beware the little Hitler inside all of us; and to suspect the motives of those massaging our intolerances. The play is not an easy ride for the audience. It was never intended to be.
Director's NoteNot yet!
TicketsChaplinis at the Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) at 14:55 to 16.05 every afternoon from August 1st to 26th except the 14th. Tickets can be bought at the Fringe box office www.edfringe.com, +44(0)131 226 0000 and at the Pleasance box office www.pleasance.co.uk/edinburgh, +44 (0)131 556 6550.
Adolfis at the Assembly Universal Arts (Venue 7) at 12:20 every day from August 2nd to 26th except the 14th. Tickets cost £10 or £12 and can be bought at the Fringe box office www.edfringe.com, +44(0)131 226 0000; Assembly box office www.assemblyfestival.com, +44 (0)131 623 3030.
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Pip Utton Theatre Company
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