Stolen Chair's The Man Who Laughs is an horrific, comedic, and romantic melodrama, freely inspired by Victor Hugo's novel of the same name. A band of gypsies kidnaps a gentle young boy and surgically disfigures his face into a permanent smile. He finds his way into the wagon of a lovably misanthropic itinerant performer who adopts him and a blind foundling girl he has discovered in his travels. 
As the children age, they fall in love and join their father on stage, gaining fame and fortune in their roles as clown and ingénue. They live happily together, but when their performances command the attention of a debauched Duchess, her lust for the deformed clown threatens to tear the family apart.
Stolen Chair's collectively created adaptation is staged as a live silent film, with stylized movement, original musical accompaniment, and projected intertitles.