Taking Charlie

Based upon a series of real life events “Taking Charlie” is a dark comedy about the kidnapping of the exhumed corpse of Charlie Chaplin following his death in Lausanne. It surrounds the desire of two Bulgarian refugees looking to start a new life in the west as garage owners/motor mechanics trying to raise funds for the venture. Stefan is a petty criminal newly released from prison following an aborted plot to raise the cash by having his pal Alek cut off his hand in order to raise compensation from the authorities. Alek , his compatriot, is the mechanic, but somewhat of a weakling who dreams of his life with his parents seeing his hero Chaplin on the screen. Thus the seed is sown to exhume the body and blackmail Oona Chaplin for its release for 600,000 Swiss francs. Throw into the mix Sylvie , Stefan’s wife with whom Alek is keen to rekindle his relationship with and the making of a farce is born. Chaplin’s widow refuses to meet the demands and we have the situation whereby the frustrated kidnappers in desperation reduce their demands of the ransom sum and at the same time threaten to dismember the body and send it piece by piece to Oona.

With the police closing in Sylvie discovers what is going on and Stefan and Alek bundle her and the coffin into a car with no brakes to make their escape. The inevitable happens and the car crashes leaving them unconscious. At this time the ghost of Charlie appears to Alek to put him on the straight and narrow, the police arrest Stefan and Alek and prison terms follow. The upshot so the story goes is that Charlie Chaplin was reburied in Lausanne under a covering of six feet of concrete thus preventing further attacks on his grave.

With the use of minimal staging and props the cast were required to demonstrate their acting techniques to the full to sell the show. This they did extremely well  in handling the complicated script and accents were spot on throughout.(not one slip or cue) Danny Stones played the maniacal Stefan superbly well and Steve Pinkney was equally impressive as the subservient Alek. Ingrid Farnham performed to her usual high standard and Barry Hogan as Chaplin the Tramp  had all his mannerisms and walk off to a T. Finally a well done to Angela Lewins as Ooona Chaplin her first role for the Group.

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