Comedy, romance and adventure in the Klondike! Nell Shipman’s 1923 silent film re-imagined with Shakespearean text and a new music score performed live.
The Film
Directed by: Bert Van Tuyle
Written and Produced by: Nell Shipman
The Revisit:
Artistic Director and Composer: Daniel Janke
Produced by: Andrew Connors for Yukon Film Society
Script: Daniel Janke, Celia McBride, Eric Epstein
The Longest Night Ensemble: Daniel Janke, Jesse Zubot, Peggy Lee, Andrea McColeman, Jordy Walker
With: Sarah Moore (Faith), Roy Ness (Leroy), Celia McBride, Aaron Janke, Dave Haddock
Pre-dating Chaplin’s classic film The Gold Rush by two years, The Grub-Stake is a riveting silent film, created in 1923 by Canadian pioneer filmmaker Nell Shipman. It tells the tale of a spirited gal who journeys to the Klondike during the 1898 Gold rush to find love and prosperity, only to discover that greed and villainy rule the day in Dawson City.
The Yukon Film Society's “revisited” version, a huge hit at the Vancouver International Film Festival, features six actors and five musicians who perform with the film for 75 hilarious minutes. Using a script compiled entirely from the works of Shakespeare and a new musical score to accompany the on-screen melodrama, this is a film experience like no other — a brilliant collision of culture and art from across three centuries.