Bring on the Clowns: Clover Hughes Celebrates the Return of a Neglected and Misunderstood Art Form. (Performance)

Hughes, Clover, New Statesman (1996)

Mention the word "mime" and most people think of a white-faced Parisian street performer wearing an embarrassingly tight catsuit, stuck behind an invisible wall. Famous names within the world of mime are relatively hard to come by: everyone knows Charlie Chaplin, possibly even Marcel Marceau, but few have heard of Etienne Decroux or Jacques Lecoq.

"Mime" comes from the ancient Greek mimos, meaning to imitate; "pantomime" means all-in-mimic, referring to the complete dramatic sketch. Although today a much maligned and misunderstood art form, mime can lay claim to an ancient and respected theatrical heritage. In 100BC, a Chinese writer recorded the work of a wonderful mime artist called Meng. Aristotle writes forcefully about what he terms imitation in the Poetics "Imitation is natural to man from childhood, and it is also natural for all to …

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Publication information: Article title: Bring on the Clowns: Clover Hughes Celebrates the Return of a Neglected and Misunderstood Art Form. (Performance). Contributors: Hughes, Clover - Author. Magazine title: New Statesman (1996). Volume: 132. Issue: 4622 Publication date: January 27, 2003. Page number: 42+. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group.

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