History of the Mime

The art of the Mime is considered to be one of the most annoying art forms on the planet, but it is a very old one too.

The art form of the Mime is considered by many to be one of the earliest mediums of self-expression. People long ago had to communicate somehow and before there was a spoken language there was, in fact, mime. Instead of the practice the way of the Mammoth it developed and continued to grow and to change and instead of fading into obscurity to became an entertainment for the people. In ancient Greece the art of mime grew into a true theatrical form. The actors, using mime, enacted every day scenes with the use of exaggerated gestures. They were known as “ethologues” and the performances they conducted served to teach a moral lesson. Thus came the term “morality play”.

The Greeks and the Romans were vastly responsible for the creation of miming as we know it today. It began in the Theater of Dionysus in Athens. Actors in masks would do performances outside in the daylight to large audiences in upwards of 10,000 people. They were performances for Dionysus, the God of theatre. Hypothesis, the most elaborate form of mime, approached the height of true drama and was performed by an acting troupe. The development of a plot took second to that of the complexity of the character.

Comedy and tragedy flourished in Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries before Christ and have influenced nearly all Western dramas to date starting with the Romans who, when they conquered Greece, brought the art form of Mime back to Italy and set to creating their own.

The Romans had a great love of spectacle and they took over the theatres in Green and began to reconstruct them in their own eyes which included pantomime to mock naval battles. Dionysus still remains today in Athens, but is dated to that of the Roman times and not the 5th BC. The art of mime enjoyed tremendous success under Emperor Augustus of Rome.

The Christians soon came at the fall of the Roman Empire and being against anything raucous or bawdy they excommunicated all performers of mime and closed the theatres down. The basic art of mime remained despite the Church’s influence to the contrary. Soon the Church relaxed its attitudes. Mystery and morality plays appeared with religious themes that were performed in mime.

The Middle Ages saw the mime continue to grow with it reaching its height in Italy around the 16th century. In Italy it was known as Commedia dell’arte which began in the markets of the Italian streets. The performers used exaggerated masks to draw attention to their performances. Troupes eventually formed and performed, being accessible to all classes. The troupes would use their alter egos to portray different societal issues and the more trouble they would get into the more popular the art would become. The art of mime has not changed much since this time.

Mime has, through all of these centuries, inspired many avenues of the arts. Clowns as we now know them are derivative of the mime. Charlie Chaplin is another great example of mime technique. The Marx Brothers were also students of the craft.

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