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Mime and Pantomime in the Twentieth Century: History, Theory, and Techniques
 Ort: Lewiston, N.Y., Lampeter
Verlag: Edwin Mellen Press
Jahr: 2008
Autor(en): Louis H. Campbell
Autor der Rezension: Frank R. Links
ISBN: 978-0-7734-5025-7
Umfang / Preis: 166 Seiten / PND 59.95
 After Anton Giulio Bragaglia published his work Evoluzione del mimo (1930) during the era of the historic avant-gardes, hardly any theater history study about pantomime or mime in general followed. In recent years though, European theater scholarship seems to have rediscovered non-verbal stage art and hence, monographs and articles are published, especially in France: Jeanyves Guérin’s Le théâtre en France de 1914 à 1950 (2007), Ariane Martinez’ La pantomime, théâtre en mineur: 1880-1945 (2008), the recent Spanish study De un teatro sin palabras. La pantomima en España de 1890 a 1939 (2008) by theater historian Emilio Peral Vega (Madrid), and finally the very informative dissertation Tours de force – Die Ästhetik des Grotesken in der französischen Pantomime des 19. Jahrhunderts (2006) by theater scholar Jörg von Brincken (Munich). All of the works mentioned intend to fill a huge gap in research. Now, also an Anglo-American study about the development of pantomime in the 20th Century has been published. Louis H. Campbell, professor of theater at Belhaven College (Mississippi, USA) is a reputable expert in theater theory as well as in stage practice. With his work Mime and Pantomime in the Twentieth Century: History, Theory, and Techniques the author tries to respond to the demand of research, while at the same time intending to create a textbook about the history of pantomime. Although the title suggests that his work is a basic, but very recent and precise research monograph, already the preface does not completely satisfy the reader’s expectations. The study is based upon a 35-year-old scholarly discussion at the First International Mime Institute & Festival in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1974. During this festival, Campbell had the opportunity to meet reputable pantomime-artists such as Etienne Decroux or Marcel Marceau and to learn from their experiences. These encounters are either paraphrased or repeated in a documentary way, creating a rather disparate view.
The book consists of seven chapters aiming to return to the three “pillars” of the title, namely “history,” “theory” and “techniques.” After the introductive chapter Campbell focuses on the terminology of pantomime and mime by underlining the difference in the meaning between both. This distinction is obvious, since mime is part of the verbal as well as of the non-verbal theater, whereas pantomime is to be understood as a completely different medium. Although the author tries to contrast and define the terms by the use of the theories of Geoffrey Buckles, Decroux and Bari Rolfe, he only introduces and cites without critically discussing them or even coming to a kind of coherent synthesis. Hence, it is up to the reader to find out about attempts and differences in the definition. Chapters two to four treat solo artists and groups of artists who significantly formed the theater environment of the 20th Century, as well as Italian performers of the Renaissance, such as Isabella Canali Andreini or actors of the 18th and 19th Century who are referred to by example of the clown Joseph Grimaldi. Since French artists such as Jacques Copeau and Charles Dullin played an important role in pantomime, especially in the first half of the 20th Century, it is obvious to focus on France. The author describes the artists’ biographies in brief chapters, but he only sporadically discusses their aesthetic ideas of mime and pantomime. Especially with regard to the historic avant-garde it is remarkable that although Campbell mentions Copeau and Dullin, the other members of the Cartel des quatre, such as Louis Jouvet, Gaston Baty and Georges Pitöeff are left out. And this despite the fact that these “creators of the theater,” especially Baty, used to theorize the aesthetics of the stage and tried to reform the art of theater with the concept of the “Rethéâtralisation.” Numerous references to archaic forms of interpretation – of which pantomime is obviously a part – can be found in their work. But their contributions are not even mentioned in the works cited section. Only rarely, as in the cases of Meyerhold or Barrault, does Campell give further references. Hence, this rather unorganized structure demands a bigger effort from the reader whereas an anthology of theater scholarship is usually meant to focus on the current state of research. Occasionally the reader gets the impression that the book has not been edited thoroughly: instead of exhaustive contributions about the work of the artists the author uses the copy-and-paste method and repeats complete paragraphs about single actors (cf. Avner Eisenberg, p. 69 and 73). Because of his extensive research and work in the scholarship of theater, Louis H. Campbell is certainly one of the few scholars who has been able to meet the artists in person. Apart from that the experience of the theater festival in 1974 may have been very enriching, but it might not seem suitable to publish private pictures in a research monograph (a total of 30 photos) – most of them in insufficient quality – and presenting scenes such as the author, Avner Eisenberg and Fred Curchack having dinner and a glass of wine (cf. plate #8). It rather seems to be the intention of this addendum to focus on the author himself than to underline his historical theater documentation.
The following two chapters “An Exploratory Glossary of Terms” and “Forms of Mime” concentrate on the field of techniques. These are certainly the most valuable parts of the work. Especially for drama students the two chapters can be seen as the necessary historical and theoretical basis of their work. As one can see in the entire book, the author also refers to these parts of his encounters with the artists which took place at the theater festival 35 years before. Considering the fact that the author focuses on the acting bodywork, it is astonishing that the term “performance” is never mentioned in the context of pantomime.
In the course of the “Performative Turn,” which has been manifested strongly in the German research tradition of the humanities in the last decades, scholars tend to re-adapt John Austins theories especially in theater scholarship. Whereas in the 1960s linguistic philosophers reflected about the question “How to do things with words?,” a paradigmatic change has taken place in stagecraft leading to the question “How to do things (also) without words?” When considering this question in particular, over-using the term “performance“ should be avoided. Within this scope it would have made sense to discuss the art of performance specific for pantomime.
The work is completed by a historical digression concerning the Italian Commedia dell’arte, the source of pantomime theater. It is obvious that publishing the historical part of a topic at the end of a work is not reasonable. But the scholarly reader may not expect too much of this chapter either: a short overview of the different personae, such as the Innamorti, Pantalone and Pedrolino, also known as Pierrot. Even if everything the author writes about these personae had been absolutely correct, it would have been eligible to add bibliographical references.
At the end the author states that “contemporary clown, street performer, and eccentric performer all rely on the techniques which permeated the style of the commedia” (p. 154), although no comparison between the personae of the Commedia and the contemporary pantomime was presented beforehand. In this case as well, Louis Campbell seems to aim at providing his drama students with another brief insight into theater history, as he writes: “He [sc. Louis Campbell] continues to teach mime and commedia [sic], preparing the next generation for an explosive range of possibilities in physical theatre of the 21st Century.” Louis Campbell’s study only partly fulfills the expectations a scholarly reader has of a history of pantomime in the 20th Century. However, the book provides a good overview for those who are interested in non-verbal theater art of the past century in a standard of popular science. Still, the author could have made an important contribution for theatre scholarship if he had used his comprehensive interview material, letters and all the other original documents he collected when he was in touch with the pantomime artists in order to publish a complete edition open to the scholarly public for further research.
Diese Nachricht wurde redaktionell betreut von Holger Suedkamp.
URL zur Zitation: http://www.theaterforschung.de/rezension.php4?ID=719
Copyright by www.theaterforschung.de
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