Rudolf Steiner Hall 2nd March 1935
April 1935
THE INSTITUTE OF MIME
The reviewer who wrote this newspaper article enjoyed the mime performance very much and has written about it in a style different to those seen in other papers.
Held at the Rudolf Steiner Hall, in London, on 2 March 1935, participants included students from RADA, and from the Central School, as well as the Ginner-Mawer School.
My sequencing on these blog posts is slightly out of kilter and it would be worth going back to one of my previous posts entitled “Two and a Half Hours?” which is a review of the same (or very similar) show. You may find it easier to read on the website https://irenemawer.com/
 | The aim of this website is to ensure that Irene Mawer is recognised for her services to the world of mime, drama, theatre, public speaking, speech therapy and all the associated arts of the theatre, voice, and movement. irenemawer.com |
where the posts are listed, which saves you from endless scrolling. That post explains, among other things, what the ‘Ninth Wave’ is, so I won’t repeat it here.
In that earlier blog post, I mused that there was probably a lot of sound during this ‘evening of silence’ and I am gratified to read in today’s newspaper clipping that, indeed, that was the case “Mime, however, may be accompanied by words sung or spoken off stage…Alice Chamier, who mimed with Barbara Lewis to the singing of Bruce Lockhart…and…words in old Scots spoken by Christian McNab…performed in Tamlin.” (I have also explained Tamlin in a previous blog post, entitled “Even the Tiniest…”)
Ruby Ginner added to the show with “Hebridean and Russian character studies (which) were excellent examples of her dramatic talent.”
The reviewer alludes to two solo mime performance by Miss Mawer, from previous blog posts, these are likely to have been ‘La Perruquier’ (the Wig Maker/Hairdresser’) and possibly ‘A Miracle of Santa Caterina.’
I wonder what Lesley Hodson’s Mediaeval mime was about? When I trained in the Irene Mawer Method of Mime and Movement, I was well versed in how to move in mediaeval clothing, including how to remove my hat when bowing – in a particular way so as to not show the dirty inside of the hat to the person I was bowing to! And when walking in (an imaginary) medieaval dress, I had to push the heavy fabric forward using my thighs.
Miss Mawer put a lot of energy into constructing her method of mime and movement and it is a shame that she is now more or less lost to the world. Please like/share/comment here as this will help the ‘bots’ to find her in the algorithms. Thanks.
