London International Mime Festival 2023

Back for the final edition of the London International Mime Festival, with a range of performances from dance to puppetry to silent films brought to life.

London International Mime Festival 2023

I am very sad to say that 2023 marks the final edition of the London International Mime Festival. It has been going since 1977 and so this is its 47th year. I haven’t been able to find out much information about why this is the final installment, but perhaps the organisers simply felt it was time to wind down this format. Personally I was quite sad to hear this, especially as I only discovered the festival last year!

In 2022 my experience of the Mime Festival was via some of the events on at the Barbican. This year because I was prepared and on the mailing list I went to a few more across different venues. Festivals are actually good for discovering venues outside of your usual repertoire: I think I will go back to The Place for more dance, for instance. I’ve also found new companies and theatre styles in a way that has further broadened my horizons.

So rather than be sad that this is the final year of the London International Mime Festival, let’s celebrate some of the talent and creativity on offer. There are four mini reviews below, which between them give a good sense of the breadth of the festival, I think. There was comedy, tragedy, and drama. I empathised with puppets, and laughed at pratfalls. The London International Mime Festival is an exceptional showcase for creative performance, and I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to make full use of it in 2023.

Please note: the LIMF has now ended, but several of these shows will have future dates in other locations.

Charlie And Stan – Told By An Idiot / Wilton’s Music Hall

To begin my LIMF experience for 2023 I headed to Wilton’s Music Hall. This historic venue is a very suitable place indeed to see a show based on music hall and early film stars Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Charlie and Stan takes as its starting point the real 1910 voyage of a number of music hall stars from England to New York. They travelled with theatre impresario Fred Karno with the aim of breaking into the American market, and indeed the type of dialogue-free theatre Karno pioneered on the London stage greatly influenced the slapstick comedy of Hollywood’s silent film era.

But back to Charlie and Stan. The show cleverly blends a kernel of truth with silent film pratfalls, set pieces and title cards. Familiar gags get the audience warmed up, while the live music performed by Sara Alexander on piano and Nick Haverson on drums sets the pace. The narrative isn’t linear: there are flashbacks and flash forwards, dream sequences and scenes that are ‘cut’. The fact that it’s without dialogue can make this a little hard to parse at times but the overall effect is fun.

This is a very physical show. Danielle Bird as Charlie Chaplin and Jerone Marsh-Reid as Stan Laurel capture their characters’ mannerisms while executing all the acrobatics with great flair. They (as well as Haverson and Alexander) are aided by the multi-level set design by Ioana Curelea. It provides plenty of opportunities for the actors to climb, fall, dance and otherwise pay homage to the real people who inspired the story. I felt the show could have done with a little trim, but otherwise it was a fun experience and good night out.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Read more about Told By An Idiot here and Wilton’s Music Hall here.

Famous Puppet Death Scenes – The Old Trout Puppet Workshop / Barbican

This is a very curious show, which had me thinking about puppetry more generally, also also our ability as humans to empathise with anthropomorphised objects. The premise of this show, by Canadian company The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, is exactly what the title says: famous puppet death scenes. Louisa Ashton, Aya Nakamura and Teele Uustani act out our puppet host plus a range of other characters. It is this host, Nathaniel Tweak, who has supposedly gathered together the famous puppet death scenes in history.

This is not a puppet show for children by any stretch of the imagination. The death scenes are sometimes graphic, often bleak, occasionally tender, and also very funny. Something I like about the LIMF is seeing things on stage I never expected. Among many unexpected scenes from Famous Puppet Death Scenes, I can say with confidence I didn’t expect going into this to see someone beaten to death with their own intestines. As a mercy killing. Or to have tears in my eyes from laughing at a skinned and flailing puppet creature.

The audience were enthusiastic in embracing this show on the night I saw it. We do tend to quickly embrace puppets as characters in their own right, and there is a broad selection to choose from here. I was also a little surprised at how easily the audience took instructions to demonstrate existential anguish and empathy as well as to applaud. Like Charlie and Stan I thought the show could perhaps do with a little trim. And I found some of the sexualised content slightly uncomfortable (maybe because it’s puppets?). But it’s a creative, fun and funny show and well worth looking out for on tour.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Read more about The Old Trout Puppet Workshop here and the Barbican here.

The Great He-Goat – Mossoux-Bonté / The Place

I mentioned above how much I’ve enjoyed this festival for its unexpected content. Well I barely even know where to begin in explaining to you The Great He-Goat by Belgian company Mossoux-Bonté. Let’s try, nonetheless, because a review with no words is… not a review.

It’s a dance performance. Its inspiration is the ‘Black Paintings’ by Spanish artist Goya. Think dark scenes of witches, demons, death, sex and unnatural beings. But if you set me the task of coming up with a performance based on this starting point, not in a million years would I come up with what Mossoux-Bonté have done. It aligns heavily on the ‘uncanny valley‘ theory, the idea that something which imperfectly resembles a human will draw a sense of horror, unease or revulsion. In this 70 minute show there are life-sized partial human puppets manned by one or two performers, supernatural effects achieved with the use of replica limbs and lighting, and still more techniques to evoke this response.

Readers, I absolutely loved it. I was captivated throughout, and couldn’t wait to see what each new scene brought. The dancers’ commitment, as well as their added sound effects and singing, were superb. Dark and strange and surreal, as it reached a ritual-like crescendo I felt truly energised by the unbound creativity and skill behind what I had seen. I’ve already signed up for the company’s mailing list in case they return to London in future.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 5/5

Read more about Compagnie Mossoux-Bonté here and The Place here.

Bill’s 44th – Dorothy James & Andy Manjuck / The Barbican

Puppet-based tragi-comedy Bill’s 44th is by turns sweet, poignant and uplifting. Dorothy James and Andy Manjuck use an innovative style of puppet design to bring the character of Bill to life. We open on Bill preparing for his birthday. The decorations, food and punch are ready. But what about the guests? Will they come? I won’t give away too much, but will say that Bill has a rich imagination, and that the overall impact is very sweet: the story is about imagination and self-acceptance as much as loneliness.

Like Famous Puppet Death Scenes above, I found myself thinking about our tendancy as humans to anthropomorphise. Obviously that’s a fairly easy task when it’s a human-shaped puppet, but I became invested in Bill’s story very quickly, and at one stage was greatly concerned for the fate of a carrot stick. ‘Bill’ himself consists of a half human form, with arms and legs supplied by James and Manjuck. At times the audience react as much to the two puppeteers’ astounding coordination as to what Bill is doing on stage.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bill’s 44th. In the last few years many of us have experienced isolation, loneliness or disappointed expectations, so it is a nice communal, cathartic experience to get together and celebrate Bill’s birthday with him.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Read more about the production here.