Reclaiming Mime
LECTURE

This talk will be presented in the form of a performative conversation around the themes, ideas, perceptions, contexts, personalities, histories and controversies enshrined in the recently published book, Mime into Physical Theatre: a UK Cultural History 1970 – 2000, by Mark Evans and Simon Murray. They will consider why this period can justifiably lay claim to be highly significant in the development of embodied theatre practices in the UK, initially signed as mime but, increasingly by the 1990s, as physical or visual theatre.

Mark and Simon will reflect on how and why mime has often been the object of derision or disdain from both the university sector and – in a different way – within popular culture. They will consider the complex cultural conditions which framed and gave rise to these practices, and some of the key figures (both artists and other cultural workers) and organisations involved in performing and enabling this work. Drawing upon their own experiences as professional performers, teachers and theatre makers in the 1980s and ‘90s, and later as academics, they will offer a blend of analysis, history, personal stories and documentation in relation to mime and its bastard and unruly child, physical theatre.

Their conversation will reflect on the intersections between gender, class, sexuality and race in the making and performing of this work, the significance of often heated debates about training for mime and physical theatre, and the reasons for the campaigning zeal of mime activists in the late ‘70s and ‘80s in Scotland, Wales and across the UK, including, of course, in London and the South East. They will particularly identify organisations such as the Mime Action Group (MAG), the International Workshop Festival (IWF), the Scottish Mime Forum (SMF), the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) and the London International Mime Festival (LIMF) as playing key roles in the shape, dramaturgies, aesthetics, promotion and cultural politics of these projects and activities. Together, the authors will take a passionate but critically reflective glance at the heterogeneous range of embodied performance practices which have had huge influence on theatre making into the 21^st century and to the present day.   

Mark Evans is Professor of Theatre Training and Education at Coventry University. After training in Paris with Jacques Lecoq, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux in the early 1980s, Mark worked on the London Fringe until moving full-time into teaching. He has worked in theatre and higher education for over forty years. Mark is an expert in actor training and theatre education, in particular movement training for actors and performers, and has published widely on Jacques Copeau, Jacques Lecoq, UK mime and physical theatre, and actor and performer training. He wrote the critical introduction to the 2020 edition of Jacques Lecoq's seminal book 'The Moving Body'. With Simon Murray, he wrote ‘Mime into Physical Theatre: A UK cultural history 1970-2000’ (2023). He is a member of the Editorial Board for the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal, and an Honorary Fellow of the international Making of the Actor project.

Simon Murray is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow. He trained with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux in Paris (1986/87) and was a professional performer and theatre maker for 12 years working in the fields of mime and physical theatre. He has taught at various universities, was Director of Theatre at Dartington College of Arts (2004-08) and retired from the University of Glasgow in 2023. He was co-founder/co-editor (with Jonathan Pitches) of the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal and has written widely around contemporary performance and physical theatres. His disparate writings include publications on Jacques Lecoq, physical theatres, lightness, WG Sebald and performances in ruins. He co-authored with Mark Evans Mime into Physical Theatre: a UK Cultural History 1970 – 2000 (2023).

STR lectures are free and open to the public. You don’t have to be a member, but it is essential to book to let us know if you wish to via the livestream on Zoom. Links to the livestream will be emailed to those who have booked and also added to the event before it starts.

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