Right up there with lynch laws and eugenics, there are few
20th-century crazes that fell out of fashion more completely than mime.
Where did it go wrong? Many opponents point to Marcel Marceau, who
infused his craft with the preciousness by which mime is still defined;
others might cite a traumatizing birthday party they attended at an
impressionable age. Either way, it’s been awhile since lovers of
“panto” have spoken of their passion in polite company without meeting
a disapproving gaze.
Jerry Mouawad, co-founder of the Imago Theatre, knows this well. He
trained with Jacques Lecoq, the Lee Strasberg of mime. Worse still, he
did this in France. Mouawad’s understanding of his art’s unpopularity
has prompted him to cloak his new show, APIS, or the Taste of
Honey, in the woolliest of terms. Not content with the dreaded
M-word, he urges us instead to prepare for a night of “movement
theater” and an “opera beyond words.” But allow me to make it plain for
you: APIS is mime. Attention-gripping, imagination-seducing
mime.
The premise is a simple game of juxtaposition: a military prison on
one hand, a beehive on the other. Dressed in ill-fitting suits, the
prisoners play out the bees’ social struggle; drones mate with the
queen while workers gather honey or, as this production has it, stacks
of cash.
To pull off this clash of realities, the performers have to make
their movements precise; every twitch is set to an internal rhythm.
Though funny to the core, it can also be chilling. When the Queen Bee
(Carol Triffle) launches into a coquettish skip moments before bedding
a drone, she’s playing for two audiences: one, her partner, to whom she
telegraphs her desire; and the other, the audience, for whom she
maintains the game’s menacing rigidity.
As striking as this moment is, it also exposes Mouawad’s conceit as
a pre-cranked “symbol-o-matic.” You expect his machine to spin off into
weak allegory but, miraculously, it never does. The production keeps a
balance between brig-world and bee-world, and the cast never overplays
the easy associations shuttling between the two. Like a fable or dream,
APIS‘ simple truths will continue to resonate hours after the
final curtain.
ANDREW STOUT