New stage show built around silent movies
Of all the summer stage shows around Asheville, “Liebe Love Amour!” by Brooklyn’s Anonymous Ensemble might be the most unusual — it’s built around a collection of silent movies by the legendary director Erich von Stroheim.
The show uses a “green screen” effect to project actress Jessica Weinstein into von Stroheim’s films to create a new story of romance and the search for love. Clips from about a half dozen of von Stroheim’s 1920s movies were incorporated into “Liebe Love Amour!” which plays through Sunday at the downtown North Carolina Stage Company theatre.
The piece started coming together in 2012 and has played in New York, New Orleans and at Duke University, said Anonymous director-writer Eamonn Farrell, who is creating the piece here with Weinstein and theater aritst Liz Davito. The unusual set was designed by Joseph Lark-Riley with music by composer Will Antoniou and lighting design by Lucrecia Briceño and Catori Swann. The audience plays a role in the show too, and each night the piece has a different feel, said Davito.
About 80 percent of the show is projected on a black-and-white movie screen. Weinstein performs behind a thin red curtain, playing to the green screen that allows her to be beamed into the film. Davito and Farrell provide voices for other characters.
“We are all theater people — none of us are film people” said Farrell. “We were looking for material that was royalty free and that limited us to 1920s silent film.”
The crew had no prior knowledge of von Stroheim, once a Hollywood giant in the silent era, but now best remembered for his performance in the 1950 movie classic “Sunset Boulevard.” The Anonymous crew found his work while searching through YouTube for clips of “weddings and certain themes,” Farrell said. “All the videos that we liked just happened to be von Stroheim films,” he said.
IF YOU GO
What: “Liebe Love Amour!” by the Anonymous Ensemble.
When: 7:30 p.m. July 10-12, 2 p.m July 13.
Where: NC Stage Company, 15 Stage Lane.
Tickets: $20, $15 under ages 30 or over age 60. 239-0263. www.ncstage.org.