Mimes

Mimes are performers who communicate primarily through bodily movement, gesture, and facial expression rather than spoken words. The term can refer to street performers who entertain crowds in public spaces as well as actors in formal theatre. Traditional mime uses minimal props and relies on the audience to infer meanings from actions, often incorporating illusionistic devices such as an invisible wall or a drawn-out freeze frame.

Elements of pantomime can be traced to ancient Greek and Roman stage entertainments, but modern mime developed in 19th- and 20th-century France. The Pierrot figure of the Commedia tradition influenced performers such as Jean-Gaspard Deburau. In the 20th century, Marcel Marceau popularized silent mime worldwide, with his character Bip; other notable contributors include Étienne Decroux, who founded corporeal mime emphasizing the body as a sculpted instrument, and Jacques Lecoq, who integrated mime into broader physical theatre. The British term pantomime refers to a different form of stage entertainment, often with song and dancing, and is not to be confused with the silent art of mime.

Mimes train to express emotion and narrative through posture, gesture, timing, and facial expressions. They use rhythm, silence, and exaggerated movements to convey mood and action, often performing with or without props. Some pieces are narratively linear, while others are abstract or purely comic. Street mimes may engage audiences less through words and more through improvisation and audience interaction.

Mimes have influenced modern theatre, dance, film, and television, and their techniques are taught in many schools of physical theatre. While traditional mime has a formal style, contemporary practitioners blend mime with other forms such as clowning, contemporary dance, or digital media.