Special Halloween Party: Silent Film
& Live Music at the Mahaiwe
- October 20, 2006
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Mahaiwe
Performing Arts Center, brings back the acclaimed Jekyll & Hyde
silent movie for Halloween.
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On
Saturday, October 28 at 8 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center hosts a
special Halloween party and program screening the 1920 silent film classic
Jekyll & Hyde starring John Barrymore and featuring The Devil Music
Ensemble playing a live original score. This one night only performance is
co-presented with the Southern Berkshire Film Festival.
The Mahaiwe brings back the acclaimed Jekyll & Hyde silent movie for
Halloween. Often described as the first American horror film, and arguably
the best, Jekyll & Hyde is based upon Robert Louis Stevenson's famed
novella "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and is
brought to life by John Barrymore, widely regarded as the world's greatest
actor. Sure to thrill Halloween enthusiasts, Barrymore portrays Dr. Jekyll,
obsessed with separating the good and evil sides of human nature, by
devising a formula allowing him to alternate between two completely
different personalities, his own, and that of the brutish, lascivious Hyde.
It is not long before the personality of Hyde begins to dominate Jekyll and
his affairs. Hailed as Barrymore’s greatest silent film, his transformation
from Jekyll to Hyde is one of cinema’s most remembered scenes, and allowed
stage legend John Barrymore to deliver his first virtuoso performance on
film. Blending historic charm with grim naturalism, this silent version is
one of the more faithful of the many screen adaptations of Robert Louis
Stevenson's story, recounting a visionary scientist's ill-fated attempts to
unleash the human mysteries that dwell beneath the shell of the civilized
self.
This silent film fills the Mahaiwe’s oversized screen while the Devil Music
Ensemble fills the theater with the original sounds of a newly created film
score.
Formed in Boston in 1999 by guitarist Brendon Wood, Devil Music Ensemble
explores all facets of music from rock to electronic, orchestral to folk, and
improvisational to incidental. On October 28 at the Mahaiwe, the group will
produce a multi-media experience and perform both composed and improvised
scores for the silent film.
The Mahaiwe invites everyone attending the film to come in costume and enjoy
complimentary refreshments after the show. All Tickets are $12.50 and
available on line at www.mahaiwe.org
and at the box office 413-528-0100.
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