Tramp on Tightrope with Monkeys
by Don Nigro

In this monologue play Charlie Chaplin wrestles with the question of personal identity.

In his life he plays a number of different roles: the little Tramp, the Great Dictator, the great director, the music hall performer, the abandoned child whose mother was mad, the seducer of young girls, the Genius, the Communist traitor, driven from the country by an FBI director who himself was playing a number of roles, the doting husband, the absent minded strict father, the shape shifter who is trapped on a tightrope, covered with monkeys, balancing over the abyss.

A funny and touching encounter with a bewildering and compelling person who never quite knew who he was.

Published in the collection The Chaplin Plays and Others and a part of the grouping The Chaplin Plays: A Double Feature