Big Top plays a live score to silent horror classic The Unknown at the Shadbolt Centre, November 1
Director Tod Browning’s 1927 film starring Lon Chaney is characterized by sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, and disfigurement
Big Top
Shadbolt Centre for the Arts presents The Unknown, a silent horror classic presented with an original live score by Big Top, on November 1 at 7:30 pm.
The Unknown is the most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between director Tod Browning and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney. It features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife-thrower Alonzo, whose dastardly infatuation with his beautiful assistant drives him to unspeakable extremes. With sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax, Browning wrings every last frisson from the 1927 film’s lurid premise.
Vancouver-based Big Top creates and performs an instrumental soundtrack to the film. The band’s music is a tip of the hat to Ennio Morricone’s soundscapes with a bit of circus style thrown in for good measure—cinematic, atmospheric guitar-based instrumentals.
Tickets to The Unknown are available through the Shadbolt Centre.
Post sponsored by Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.
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