There are mimes and there are mimes. Then there is Marcel Marceau, who didn't invent the art form by any means but is the mime-of-mimes as far as Americans are concerned. Marceau, a lifelong fan of silent entertainment and a practitioner of mime for over 50 years, lived up to his reputation and then some last night. Famed mime spellbinding
Review by John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comHad there been any "haters" in the house last night, dragged there perhaps by an enthusiastic spouse, they would almost certainly have been converted.
Marcel Marceau: Repeats at 7:30 p.m. today at Blaisdell Concert Hall.
Tickets: $25, $50 & $60.
Call: 526-4400.
Marceau's performance was based more on the art of silent acting than on creating the physical illusions often associated with miming. His skill as an actor becomes the key ingredient to a fascinating look at a silent, foreign word. The most impressive dramatic piece closed the show -- Marceau's classic piece "The Mask Maker." Describing the premise -- a mask maker tries on some of his creations -- doesn't do justice to Marceau's execution of it. His face "becomes" each frozen expression and remains fixed until the "mask" is removed.
Marceau creates the illusion of increasingly rapid mark changes with equal skill. Then one of the masks becomes stuck. The mask maker struggles to remove it but is trapped in his own creation. The contrast between the man's increasing desperate movements and the ominous frozen grin of the mask became more extreme with each passing second.
Marceau opened the evening with selections from his repertoire of "pantomimes of style" and continued after intermission with several pieces featuring Bip, the poignant yet comic character he created in 1947.
Bip, a clown-like character with a striped pullover shirt and battered top hat with a red flower, is Marceau's alter-ego. The relationship between Marceau and Bip is like that of Chaplin and his "Little Tramp," and Bip is the same sort of indestructible "little guy." As a street musician Bip is confronted with the competing noise of a marching band. As a lion tamer he must deal with a bunch of lazy felines that don't feel like jumping through hoops. In "Bip Travels by Sea" he encounters increasingly rough sailing.
Two favorite "pantomimes of style" last night were "The Public Garden" and "The Trial." The characters of the judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, defendant and witness(es), were all brilliantly and clearly drawn.
"The Hands" is an intriguing piece set to music. It is one of several that require imagination and keen eyes to figure out. One of the many things that makes Marceau's work so interesting is the mental exercise involved in figuring out where some of his pieces are going. That said, one of the numbers left me cold even with the sound effects. Am I the only one who was puzzled by "The Bird Keeper?"
Aside from seeing Marceau from the historical angle (he's 78 and this is his first engagement here), his mastery of his art makes this a show that any one with an interest in acting and related theatrical arts should see.
Lastly, any dolt -- or dolt-ess -- who leaves a cell phone on during a mime performance should be hunted down and then forever banned from the Blaisdell Concert Hall.
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