Mime Play Competition

Dancing Times, London, November 1938

This mention of a mime play competition is different to the Memorial Mime Competition which was held after Miss Mawer’s death.

This is the only time I have come across information on this endeavour. The competition was organised through the Institute of Mime, which by this time had been in operation for about 5 years.

There were two categories – adults and children. Each had the opportunity of winning a cash prize of £2 and 2 shillings in pre-decimalised money, which as I write this in 2024, would be worth £112 – not bad!

There is no indication of what length the mime play should be, which I find to be an unusual omission. Other instructions, though, state that the manuscript needed to be typed, not hand written, and submitted to the Secretary by the end of January 1939. The news clipping is from November 1938, so it would seem that the idea was for families to work up their plays over the Christmas period.

Music was allowed (this would have been played on the piano by the regular pianist) and the annotated music scrips were required to be submitted alongside the typed scenarios.

I wonder what became of the idea for a mime competition? Of course, by the following Christmas, Britain was at war – which doubtless stopped any hope of a mime competition. And while there were valiant efforts to re-invigorate the Institute of Mime after the war, it never really found firm ground and failed a few years later.

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