This 22-minute masterpiece sees Buster covering new ground for himself: opening act consists of a dream sequence where he portrays every single character - have you ever seen nine Busters sharing the same screen? Or Buster dressed as a child and a grandmother at the same time? This trickery is known since the beginning of cinema when its pioneer, Georges Melies, played an orchestra man in his short features but Buster's "The playhouse" turned this into absolute perfection.
The rest of the movie plays out at the theater where Keaton's character is a handy man, indeed playing any character he's given a task to and does that splendidly. The movie is full of laughter and although it contains a somewhat quieter Keaton than usual (he fractured his ankle shortly before shooting it) with almost none of his trademark stunts but he makes it all up in full with tons of other gags which made this movie even funnier in comparison to his other shorts.
It doesn't break any new grounds in terms of storytelling though, fully relying on delivering the laughs but despite that the movie still shows lots to think about, be it a thin love line between Buster and the twin girl number 1 (or was it the girl number 2?) when he shows her what he's capable of doing when it comes to saving her life or be it a slight undertext about those laborers who had to literally do everything to earn their minimum wages. Anyhow "The playhouse" will stick out not only because of its opening sequence with multiple Busters as he's got so many more to show even without him playing every single role - Keaton's soul was in everything he touched.
The rest of the movie plays out at the theater where Keaton's character is a handy man, indeed playing any character he's given a task to and does that splendidly. The movie is full of laughter and although it contains a somewhat quieter Keaton than usual (he fractured his ankle shortly before shooting it) with almost none of his trademark stunts but he makes it all up in full with tons of other gags which made this movie even funnier in comparison to his other shorts.
It doesn't break any new grounds in terms of storytelling though, fully relying on delivering the laughs but despite that the movie still shows lots to think about, be it a thin love line between Buster and the twin girl number 1 (or was it the girl number 2?) when he shows her what he's capable of doing when it comes to saving her life or be it a slight undertext about those laborers who had to literally do everything to earn their minimum wages. Anyhow "The playhouse" will stick out not only because of its opening sequence with multiple Busters as he's got so many more to show even without him playing every single role - Keaton's soul was in everything he touched.