The Playhouse is a shining example of the adage “necessity is the mother of invention”. During the filming of The Electric House, Keaton suffered a show-stopping accident, breaking his ankle. Even after he recovered it was thought unwise for him to make another short that relied heavily on his athletic abilities. Keaton’s solution was as inventive as it was elegant. He would rely on the dexterity of the camera and the possibilities of the film medium itself to do the work for him. For the most famous sequence, Keaton devised an elaborate shutter system that allowed for the frame to be exposed in nine separate vertical sections, creating nine multiple exposures of Keaton performing on the same strip of film. A remarkable feat of engineering and choreography, it required Keaton to perfectly time his movements and camera operator Elgin Lessley, whom he called “the human metronome” to exactly match his camera speed each time. According to Keaton, the gag of crediting himself with multiple roles within the film was a friendly dig at people such as Thomas Ince, who he felt were overly generous when giving themselves credit.

Tim Lanza