EDITOR’S NOTE: This event has been canceled.

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Back by popular demand! Doug Protsik returns to lend his “Old Time Piano” masterfulness to a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s silent film, “The Gold Rush,” at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, at to the Emery Community Arts Center on the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington.

Charlie Chaplin, The Little Tramp, plays The Lone Prospector who, during the Klondike Gold Rush, becomes lost in a blizzard and trapped in a cabin with two other men without food. Forced to eat a shoe and trespassing bear, he finds himself in a desperate situation.

Chaplin, believing tragedies and comedies were not that far apart, drew inspiration from the Klondike Gold Rush and the story of the Donner Party who, while trapped in the Sierra Nevada, were driven to eat leather from their shoes and even cannibalism.  Chaplin decided that the “little Tramp” should become a gold-digger who joins a brave optimist determined to face all the pitfalls associated with the search for gold, such as sickness, hunger, cold, loneliness or the possibility that he may at any time be attacked by a grizzly.

Doors will open at 5:30 pm. Admission to the event is $20, with free entry for those aged 18 and under. All are welcome, with a flexible payment option. Due to expected high demand, it is advisable to purchase tickets in advance online at artsfarmington.org, although a limited number will be available at the door.

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