The Stone Face

The year is 1964 and first-time film director Alan Schneider is about to embark on a project combining the talents of Buster Keaton and Samuel Beckett. When Alan visits the home of Keaton to discuss the project, titled simply Film, he discovers the former star engaged in an imaginary card game with the long-deceased Irving G. Thalberg.

It doesn’t take long for Alan to realize that he has entered into an altered universe resembling the surreal world of the Buster Keaton film, a world where doors solve problems and card games provide lessons in life. Alan turns to Beckett for help in making sense of this world, only to find that Sam is perfectly at home in it.

The Stone Face tracks Alan’s journey through the maze that is the world of the Keaton film, a world which, as the making of Film progresses, also takes on elements that might be found in a Beckett absurdist play. By examining the making of Film, as well as the comedy of the Keaton film, the play examines the process by which we create art in general as well as the process by which we live our lives.

Praise for The Stone Face:

"[L]ocal playwright Sherry MacDonald skillfully manages to pay homage to Buster Keaton and Samuel Beckett while jibing at subjects as diverse as theatre of the absurd, Abbott and Costello and academic literary theory. … both my hands are clapping."(ReviewFromTheHouse)

"The energetic tone of the piece is rich and appealing. The slapstick world of Buster Keaton is exploited to full theatrical effect. The voices are vivid, unique, and imbued with useful subtext." (Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago)

"A wonderfully clever and inventive tale of an interesting collaboration. The comic traditions of Buster Keaton and other silent film stars are drawn on to create a story of a man coming to understand the nature or genius and the mystery of great art." (Actors Theatre of Louisville)