The history of mime begins in the ancient world, at least in the 4th century BC when mime was used for worship and expression of belief and fear of ancient idols. The imitations made then by the ancients with its help were of various animals and forces of nature.
Egyptian hieroglyphs, the same inscriptions written in Khartoum left by the people of ancient Egypt, testify to pantomime performances that took place in ancient Egyptian culture. But just like the styles of the art of painting moving from realism to Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract, and so on, so did the art of mime has developed over the years.
Today we will explore the long and complex history of this ancient art form, and see how it grew to the mime act that we know and love today.
History of Mime
The Roman culture left evidence of pantomime performances called “mimos” (Greek “imitation” or “imitator”). As in Greek and Roman theater, in these pantomime performances, the Romans combined a variety of masks and scenery. Breaking the language barrier among audiences, members of different nationalities, made Roman Mimusian plays the most successful throughout the Roman Empire.
The ancient actors wore masks and performed stories of everyday life for the audience, sometimes by the thousands. Roman and Greek pantomimes also integrated dance into their performances. This is referred to as “the oriental style of mime“, and is something that today will be on the border of “not being a mime at all”. It is very elaborate and includes the use of wigs, detailed makeup, props, and music. Usually, it involves the portrayal of characters familiar to the audience and may include exciting gymnastic movements.
After the fall of the Roman empire, the Christian church showed great opposition to the bawdy, and often indecent associations of Mime, and excommunicated all performers, and closed down all the theatres. Despite this, the basic form of Mime survived. As the Church began to relax its attitude, mystery, and morality plays began to appear with religious themes, many performed in mime.
Even in the religious theater of the Middle Ages, the art of pantomime continued to be very successful. Actors often appeared then in characters of demons and evil spirits. By the 1700s, mimes became part of what was called “entertainments,” snippets of performances before or after the main production, such as a play or concert. It was referred to as “panto,” and sometimes even combined Italian street-performance acrobatics with music and slapstick.
Commedia dell’Arte
The pantomime also took part in the “Comedy del Arte” plays, which later developed in Italy. This style was very strong on character development and storytelling and is a key representation of the literal mime technique.
The performing troupes were accessible to all social classes and the subject matter was always contemporary. With the mask concealing their identity, the performers could ridicule any aspect of society and its’ institutions. No one was safe. Ironically, the more trouble the troupes were in, the more popular and successful they became.
Even though troupes traveled away from their homeland, language was no barrier. Skillful mime and Zanni antics conveyed the storylines to audiences throughout Europe. So strong was their influence, that performers from other countries began to imitate the Zanni style. In 1576, a company of Italian players led by Flamino Scala went to France, where the art of Mime became immensely popular. Many of the traditional gestures and figures, such as Harlequin, became familiar at this time.
Etienne Decroux Technique of Corporeal Mime
In the 1920s, Etienne Decroux, another mime giant, introduced physical illusions into the pantomime lexicon. He contributed to this art what would become pantomime clichés (or classic acts, if I may), such as “pulling the rope,” “walking against the wind,” and “wall.” These illusions were originally invented by him as body control exercises, for novice actors and mime.
His early style as a “statue-like pantomime” (Mime statuaire) was reminiscent of Rodin’s sculptures. He later created more plastic forms of expression that he called “mime corporeal”. As a theorist, he based his physical training partly on what modern dancers called “isolations”, in which body parts move in a pre-dictated sequence, and partly on the physics of compensation required to maintain the body’s balance with its center of gravity tilted to the side.
Over the years they were developed by Decroux and another great mime artist named Jean-Louis Barrault, into what would be considered the art of modern mime. In his school in Boulogne-Bancor, where he taught his ”Etienne Decroux Technique”, many hundreds of students passed through and a new generation of mime artists rose. The art he developed in those years was completely different from what was known as a traditional mime. They did not develop an art of silence, but a real art of dramatic movement. As a result, in the end, this revolutionary art is often considered a “classical” pantomime.
Marcel Marceau and Popoular Mime
In 1923, another Frenchman named Jacques Copeau opened a theater arts school where he used the art of mime to improve the acting skills of his students. Through the influence of such greats as Jean-Louis Barrault and Marcel Marceau, French mime developed into exciting art. Costumes and makeup became simple: often white facial makeup and black or white clothing. This is done to give the mime artist a neutral effect as well as make it easier to see his/her facial expressions, and the white full-face make-up is there to heighten the dramatic impact of the movements and expressions.
Marcel Marceau will always hold a special place in the history of mime, as the first that really took the classic mime to the very popular and successful. His career as a mime artist soared after World War II when he joined Jean-Louis Barrault’s team and got the role of Harlequin in the mime show “Baptiste”. Marceau’s performance earned him so much praise that he embarked on a solo career and over the years earned the reputation of being the greatest mime artist of the 20th century.
The French style attempts to mimic human gestures realistically. This requires a delicate balance, strict concentration, and much study. Early French mime was characterized by being somewhat grim and then evolved into movement theater where emotion of all types is important and the plot less so.
Marceau, a personal friend of Charlie Chaplin and the one who admired him from childhood founded the prestigious School of Mantrama of Paris and made it a world leader. Over time, he was also an inspiration to pop star Michael Jackson and one of his teachers. Jackson, who was considered the “King of Pop” at the end of the millennium, once said that he got the inspiration for his famous moonwalk from Marceau.
History of mime – Current Day
Today, the art of mime is still very common in some circus acts, and in many places as street performances. In recent years, mime has entered the church as a feature of dance and dramatization tool used to worship and educate. Another common way mime is still relevant today is in singing, often referred to as Lip sync (a technical term for matching the lip movements of a talking or singing person with sung or spoken vocals, which can be considered a form of mime).
Hi