Comic genius is an overused term especially at this time of year, but Marcel Cole’s hour-long homage to the king of silent-movie slapstick, and beyond, warrants such an accolade on several levels. Opening with a note-perfect condensed re-enactment of Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 masterpiece, The Gold Rush, Australian clown Cole enlists several audience members as his cast to chart Chaplin’s rise from poverty-stricken childhood to the vaudeville stage and global stardom in Hollywood.

Cole plays on his in-the-moment interactions with a masterly sense of comic control for a Sunday morning crowd who clearly know their Chaplin backwards. Drawing from the maestro’s epic 1964 autobiography, Cole goes beyond nostalgia to take in Chaplin’s reluctant move into the talkies and his anti-fascist stance with The Great Dictator. His exile to Switzerland after being dragged through the House Un-American Activities Committee looks very much like a forerunner of today’s cancel culture. While the original has been well shared, hearing Cole recite the climactic speech from that movie is a chilling moment in a magnificent masterpiece of serious fun. 

Smile: The Story Of Charlie Chaplin, Pleasance Courtyard, until 25 August, 11.10am.