Equipped with a cardboard model and a very sophisticated concept, Richard Aubé and his friend at MRUA International, Caroline Perron, managed to persuade the successors of Charlie Chaplin’s work.
“The presentation lasted 51 minutes, after which they told us: “You Quebecers are crazy!” It’s not just a concept, it’s a whole scenario!” recalls Richard Aubé with a laugh.
Alexander Caputo
A daring project
In 2018, Richard Aubé and Caroline Perron traveled to Switzerland to meet Charlie Chaplin’s eight children, where they received their blessing for the realization of the Smile! project, a multidisciplinary show honoring the legendary filmmaker.
“We saw from their reactions that they said to themselves: ‘Wow, this is the kind of show our father would have liked to have made if he had had the resources of 2023,’” Richard Aubé, designer of, proudly supports Show Smile!, which begins an international tour June 12 in Quebec.
“The children [de Charlie Chaplin] are used to having requests, but usually people put money on the table and want the license [de son œuvre] before we present a concept,” explains Mr. Aubé in an interview with Le Journal. “We didn’t have a dime, but we had a whole concept!”
Caroline Perron, also designer of the show “Smile!” Photo Stevens LeBlanc
Charlie Chaplin’s eight descendants quickly agreed to grant the two Quebecers full license to their father’s work.
“They were very touched by our ideas and I think they liked our boldness, because we had not even returned to the country before we already had their approval,” says the designer happily.
This multidisciplinary show presents sequences from films from Charlie Chaplin’s career, interspersed with dance, circus and musical numbers. Mobile screens on the stage serve as background scenery during performances.
“In the hour and a half we want to take people from laughing to crying, just as Charlie Chaplin did so well,” says Mr. Aubé.
No Charlot on stage
Without knowing it, Mr. Aubé and Ms. Perron hit the nail on the head by failing to cast an actor to impersonate Charlie Chaplin in their show “Smile!”
“We didn’t know it, but the children are tired of seeing copies of their father on stage,” explains the producer. “For us, it is not so much the character but the emotions that his works convey that pay most homage to him.”
►The world premiere of the show Smile! will be performed at the Grand Théâtre de Québec on June 12. Further tour dates have yet to be confirmed.