Thursday, March 12, 2009

OK, now I understand why everybody hates mimes.

Last weekend was the regional one-act play competition, which went amazingly well. The adjudicator was great, unlike last year's ditzy and unprofessional and slightly offensive adjudicator, and everyone had a fabulous time.

The mime act wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was way, way worse. It was some sort of anti-war statement, but aside from "making a daisy chain" and "running from bombs" and the obligatory "getting trapped in a box", I couldn't really tell what the hell the guy was doing. "Is he strangling a crocodile or boiling an egg? Why does he keep bowing?" I had to chomp on my lip the whole time to keep from laughing.

The Outstanding Production award went to the latest comedy from the dude who has mother issues (every year, he writes a play about a hilariously domineering mother who browbeats her son). Instead of breaking the fourth wall like he usually does, he told the story of a woman who annually hires three actors to stand in for her real sons and takes them to a posh French restaurant. Unlike her real sons, they all adore her and have become very successful - but the youngest son is new to the job and can't get his lines straight.

The final show was done by a group of young 'uns, late teens or very early '20s, who pulled off some incredible, Tim-Burton-like special effects in a comic ghost story. One ghost had been chopped in half, so his legs (with guts sticking out) did a jig, while his top half (with guts hanging down) told jokes. Very clever and inventive stuff, especially for a 30-minute show.

8 comments:

mister anchovy said...

I've never seen a mime in the flesh...

tweetey30 said...

Sounds interesting.. I wish I could see this. Stomp was here again and we couldnt afford to go. Maybe next time. You know they will be back. I have been told its great but loud..

S.M. Elliott said...

I envy you, Mr. A.

I'm guessing Stomp would sound a lot like drunks fighting in an alley, and since I get to hear that sound all the time, I'm not so sure I want to see it. ;D

Anonymous said...

The dude with the mother issues would have made me very uncomfortable... too close to home!

Otherwise it sounds like it was a terrific event!

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Is it wrong of me to want a smack a mime, just to hear him yelp.? And to make him stop miming, I guess.

S.M. Elliott said...

Wrong, BB, but so very right at the same time...

GWB, I wasn't sure the playwright had mother issues the first year. By the second year I knew he did. After this year I really, really want to meet his mother so I can ask her what she did to the poor guy!

zydeco fish said...

I have never liked mimes. They suck, just like ventriloquists.

Vest said...

Zydeco: you mean like you suck sausage.