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Amimeartist, or simplymime (fromGreekμῖμος,mimos, "imitator, actor"),[1] is a person who usesmime (also calledpantomime outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use ofspeech, as a theatrical medium or as aperformance art. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as amummer. Miming is distinguished fromsilent comedy, in which the artist is a character in a film or skit without sound.
Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced byCommedia dell'arte and JapaneseNoh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors. His pupilÉtienne Decroux was highly influenced by this, started exploring and developing the possibilities of mime, and developedcorporeal mime into a highly sculptural form, taking it outside the realms of naturalism.Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime andphysical theatre with his training methods.[2] As a result of this, the practice of mime has been included in theInventory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in France [fr] since 2017.[3]
The performance of mime originates at its earliest inAncient Greece; the name is taken from a single masked dancer calledPantomimus, although performances were not necessarily silent. The first recorded mime was Telestēs in the playSeven Against Thebes byAeschylus. Tragic mime was developed by Puladēs of Kilikia; comic mime was developed by Bathullos of Alexandria.[4] Mime (mimius) was an aspect of Roman theatre from its earliest times,[5] paralleling theAtellan farce in its improvisation (if without the latter's stock characters).[6] It gradually began to replace the Atellanae as interludes [embolium] or postscripts [exodium] on the main theatre stages;[7] became the sole dramatic event at theFloralia in the second century BC; and in the following century received technical advances at the hands ofPublius Syrus andDecimus Laberius.[6] Under the Empire mime became the predominant Roman drama,[6] if with mixed fortunes under different emperors.Trajan banished mime artists;Caligula favored them;Marcus Aurelius made them priests ofApollo.Nero himself acted as a mime.[8] The mime was distinguished from other dramas by its absence of masks, and by the presence of female as well as male performers.[9] Stock characters included the lead (orarchymimus[a]), the stooge or stupidus,[6] and thegigolo, or cultus adulter.[10]
In medieval Europe, early forms of mime such asmummer plays and laterdumbshows evolved. In early nineteenth-century Paris,Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that have come to be known in modern times—the silent figure in whiteface.
Analogous performances are evident in the theatrical traditions of other civilizations.[citation needed]Classical Indian musical theatre, although often erroneously labeled a "dance," is a group of theatrical forms in which the performer presents a narrative via stylized gesture, an array of hand positions, and mime illusions to play different characters, actions, and landscapes. Recitation, music, and even percussive footwork sometimes accompany the performance. TheNatya Shastra, an ancient treatise on theatre byBharata Muni, mentions silent performance, ormukabhinaya.[citation needed] InKathakali, stories from Indian epics are told with facial expressions, hand signals and body motions. Performances are accompanied by songs narrating the story while the actors act out the scene, followed by actor detailing without background support of narrative song.[citation needed] The JapaneseNoh tradition has greatly influenced many contemporary mime and theatre practitioners includingJacques Copeau andJacques Lecoq because of its use of mask work and highly physical performance style.[citation needed]Butoh, though often referred to as a dance form, has been adopted by various theatre practitioners as well.[citation needed]
Before the work ofÉtienne Decroux there was no major treatise on the art of mime, and so any recreation of mime as performed prior to the twentieth century is largely conjecture, based on interpretation of diverse sources. However, the twentieth century also brought a newmedium into widespread usage: the motion picture. The restrictions of early motion picture technology meant that stories had to be told with minimal dialogue, which was largely restricted tointertitles. This often demanded a highly stylized form of physical acting largely derived from the stage. Thus, mime played an important role in films prior to advent oftalkies (films with sound or speech). The mimetic style of film acting was used to great effect inGerman Expressionist film.Silent film comedians likeCharlie Chaplin,Harold Lloyd, andBuster Keaton learned the craft of mime in the theatre, but, through film, they had a profound influence on mimes working in live theatre decades after their deaths. Indeed, Chaplin may be the best-documented mime in history.Harpo Marx, of theMarx Brothers comedy team, continued the mime tradition in the sound film era, his silent persona working in counterpoint to the verbal comedy of his brothersGroucho andChico. The famous French comedian, writer, and directorJacques Tati achieved his initial popularity working as a mime, and his later films had only minimal dialogue, relying instead on many subtle expertly choreographed visual gags. Tati, like Chaplin before him, would mime out the movements of every single character in his films and ask his actors to repeat them.
Mime has been performed on stage, withMarcel Marceau and his character "Bip" being the most famous. Mime is also a popular art form instreet theatre andbusking. Traditionally, these sorts of performances involve the actor/actress wearing tight black and white clothing with white facial makeup. However, contemporary mimes often perform without whiteface. Similarly, while traditional mimes have been completely silent, contemporary mimes, while refraining from speaking, sometimes employ vocal sounds when they perform. Mime acts are often comical, but some can be very serious.
Canadian author Michael Jacot's first novel,The Last Butterfly, tells the story of a mime artist in Nazi-occupied Europe who is forced by his oppressors to perform for a team of Red Cross observers.[11] Nobel laureateHeinrich Böll'sThe Clown relates the downfall of a mime artist, Hans Schneir, who has descended into poverty and drunkenness after being abandoned by his beloved.[12]
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