It would have made a great silent movie – a cross between The Gold Rush and Nosferatu. A story so bizarre, so macabre that it proved, if proof were needed, that fact can be a good deal stranger than fiction. Yet fact it was when in March 1978 the body of Charlie Chaplin was unceremoniously dug up from its Swiss resting place, spirited away and held for ransom only a few weeks after his death on Christmas Day 1977.

But does this rather gruesome, slightly surreal story make great theatre? Goofus, a small Salford based theatre company, were at the Everyman Studio with their irreverent comedy Taking Charlie to convince us that it did.

Well, writer Neil Warhurst’s version of the incident certainly captured the main events and with three well written and defined characters managed to weave a coherent and entertaining play. The two eastern European immigrants who fancied themselves as a latter day Burke and Hare were in fact mechanics Gantscho Ganev (the brains), a 38-year-old Bulgarian and Roman Wardas (the brawn), a 24-year-old Pole. Warhurst renamed them (why?) Stefan and Alek and exposed their incomprehensible incompetence for all to see.

The cast of three actors was excellent and funny. The energetic Paul Barnhill was a suitably oafish Stefan with the endearing Lindsay Allen as his long-suffering, though not much brighter, wife. I particularly liked Guy Hargreaves as the unfortunate Alek whose lack of brawn was only matched by Stefan’s lack of brain. They all did a fine job in a decent enough play.

However, and it pains me to have to say so, they were seriously let down by a lack-lustre, unimaginative, tatty and, at times, (horror of horrors) amateurish production. It seemed that little or no thought, care or imagination had gone into the visual presentation. It had no style, no personality. It was sloppy and very disappointing. A lot of tricks and opportunities were missed which could have turned Taking Charlie into something very special and exciting.

A pity. This is a bizarre and enthralling story well written and performed which in presentation, bizarrely, lacked the imagination and application of the odd couple it portrayed. If there ever was a drawing-board, now would be the time to go back to it.   ★★★☆☆   Michael Hasted