At last year's Beijing Youth Theater Festival, director Huang Ying's work "Journey to The West" won wide acclaim for using everyday household items as props and costumes and for turning the stage into a children's playground. In one scene, the performers used toilet paper rolls as masks. Audiences were amazed by Huang's imagination but she admitted that she had got her ideas from the Swiss mime troupe Mummenschanz.
In 2003, Mummenschanz performed an exclusive show when Pascal Couchepin, then the president of Switzerland, visited Beijing. Huang was one of the lucky few who saw them perform and has been in love with them ever since.
"Before Mummenschanz I had never seen such great physical theater," she says. "They have revolutionized the world of mime by blending dance, mask-play, theater and puppetry into an enchantingly beautiful, silent world of eccentrically playful humor and fantastic shapes."
Now the well-known mime company is back in China for a three-week tour taking in Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Suzhou and Hangzhou. The Beijing show will run at the PLA Theater from tomorrow until Friday.
Mummenschanz, which means masquerade, was established in 1972 by Bernie Schurch and Andres Bossard, from Switzerland, and the America-born Italian actress Floriana Frassetto. "The very first idea was to explore a new form of mime theater, using everyday materials, to have great fun and transcend the barriers of language and culture," Schurch told me.
They engage in silent dialogue with the audience and turn everyday objects such as tissues, plastics, toys and pipes into abstract forms, simple costumes and expressive masks. Their performances feature fantastic creatures, tell simple stories, express common human emotions and explore people's relationships with each other.
Mummenschanz have been touring the world for more than 30 years and their popularity surged after they won a coveted spot on Broadway in 1977 and stayed for three years.
Bossard's death in 1992 was a great loss. Frassetto and Schurch had to adjust to life without him. The American actor John Charles Murphy joined in 1995 and they created a new program, "Parade," followed in 2006 by "3x11," a 33-year retrospective on the mime company.
In the coming three weeks, Chinese audience will see this show, which combines all the highlights and most popular characters and figures, including, the toilet roll masks.
"Last time we performed in Beijing only for a limited audience and we are looking forward to a wide audience enjoying our shows," says Frassetto, "We really expect an interaction with the audience.
"People always ask how we get our inspiration and imagination. I think the inspiration comes from accumulation. Whether you walk into a museum, a Chinese market or see old friends, the point is you must observe with your heart.
"Everybody has imagination. Our show has no music or sound but people often tell us that they hear music when we perform. I think our performance makes them imagine music."
(China Daily May 19, 2009)
