Silent Film Orchestra to Perform in Brookline and Nantucket

The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra Stages a Double Premiere of its new score to Buster Keaton's 1923 comic masterwork, Our Hospitality.

April 26, 2013

The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra will double-premiere its new, original score to Buster Keaton's comic masterwork Our Hospitality (1923). The BSFO performs the score live to the picture at the historic Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline on May 6, at 7:00 p.m., part of the Coolidge's "Sounds of Silents" series. Tickets are $20, and $17 for seniors and students.

The brand-new Nantucket Dreamland Theater will see the BSFO's island debut, and Our Hospitality's second premiere, on Wednesday, May 15, at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets, to benefit the Nantucket Community Music Center, are $25, and $20 for seniors and students. Keaton stars as youthful dreamer Willie McKay, who travels westward on a rickety locomotive to claim his birthright, only to find that his inheritance is a shack. And he learns that the object of his affection (Keaton’s real-life wife, Natalie Talmadge) is the daughter of a man with whom his family has been engaged in a long, violent feud. McKay’s personal struggles are punctuated by brilliant slapstick setpieces that involve an exploding dam, raging waterfalls, and a primitive steam engine. Keaton directed, supervised the design and construction of the train, and as usual, did all the stunts himself. Recently recognized by the Boston Society of Film Critics for its contributions to the Coolidge's Sounds of Silents series, the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra is directed by professor Sheldon Mirowitz (Outside Providence, Missing in America). Our Hospitality is the sixth silent masterwork the BSFO has composed and performed live-to-picture, joining Sunrise, It, Battleship Potemkin, Piccadilly, and Faust.