Mime is a form of creative dramatic self-expression that is usually performed without the use of words. It is difficult to establish an exact date or place for the first dramatic use of mime but there is evidence to suggest that even the earliest human beings used mimetic actions to express and share various cultural beliefs and experiences. Mime first seems to have been used in organised theatrical presentations in the East and it has remained an important part of traditional performing art forms in Japan, India, and China. In the West, the Ancient Greeks are thought to have introduced organised forms of mime through the dances and farcical comedy sketches the presented during their theatre festivals. The Ancient Romans then adopted the Greek forms of mime and developed them into popular dumb shows that exaggerated and emphasised physical traits and the vulgar or obscene behaviour of characters. During the Middle Ages, mime evolved into two different forms and it was used by travelling jesters who entertained and performed improvised mimes as well as performers who mimed the actions of the mystery, morality and miracle plays that developed in churches.
During the Renaissance, mime emerged again in Italy as a recognisable dramatic form and troupes of performers skilled in Commedia dell' Arte began travelling throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While not widely practiced in England during this time, commedia also seems to have influenced the development of English court masques, jesters and the clowns that began appearing in plays being performed in the English theatres of Shakespeare's era. Eventually, a refined version of the Italian mime was introduced to England in the eighteenth century and it became a familiar and accepted form of dramatic entertainment. During the nineteenth century, melodramas in America, England and France also began including mime and while these forms were developing, a French ‘silent mime' tradition increasingly emerged that was more subtle and character-centred. After this long period of evolution mime had established three distinct styles that had grown out of Eastern, Italian and French performance traditions.
While these three main traditions exhibited quite different structures and techniques, in the twentieth century, mime practitioners increasingly began to reject, reformulate and borrow ideas from each of the established styles. As various artists embraced theatrical experimentation and innovations, radical changes occurred in the way performers and directors used mime. Many of these changes originated in France and the work of the French director and actor Jacques Copeau was particularly influential. Copeau disliked the theatrical style of naturalism that was proving popular at the beginning of the nineteenth century and he set up his own acting school to explore the expressive potential of the performing body. Copeau's performances used bare staging and his students were trained in masks, gestures and Japanese Noh theatre. Etienne Decroux was a student of Copeau's who opened his own school in Paris in 1940 and continued his own research into the physical art of performance. His intense, often abstract work made a deep impact on a number of his students and led many to call him ‘the father of modern mime.' Decroux worked closely with another influential French actor by the name of Jean-Louis Barrault whose acting and directing talents displayed great sensitivity and inspired many others. Decroux also taught Marcel Marceau who then developed his own approach to mime and utilised a number of the traditional approaches associated with French mime. The imaginary situations Marceau created with his white-faced character ‘Bip' attracted huge popularity as well as many imitators and for a number of years, mime seemed to become synonymous with his name and his performances. However, in the late 1950s, Jacques Lecoq opened a completely different school of mime in Paris that changed the direction of physical performance training. He began to boldly explore and extend many of the preoccupations first introduced by Copeau and his students and searched for ways to isolate and develop the performing body. He developed strategies and outlined principles that could inform a number of performance styles like clowning, masks, bouffons and commedia dell'arte and he and his students examined connections between genres like comedy, tragedy and melodrama. The work of all these artists and their students has introduced exciting possibilities for the development of mime and has had a profound influence on the training, development and appreciation of mime and other forms of acting and performing throughout the world (see companies like Theatre du Complicite or the British artist David Glass for examples).
The ongoing experimentation with existing styles and definitions of mime continues to attest to the creativity and flexibility of this art form. While historical and theoretical definitions can inform studies of mime, they certainly do not contain the creative shifts and changes artists continue to make with existing categories and techniques. There is often a tendency to demarcate theoretical differences between ‘mime' and ‘pantomime' and to suggest that mime offers more subtle and serious characterisations while pantomime uses broader more comic representations. One could also suggest that pantomime seems to refer to forms that developed before 1850 and mime to forms that were created after that date. However, these terms do not seem to adequately describe some of the forms that have been created and such distinctions definitely do not apply strictly to contemporary performance practices. Today, abstract and literal storylines and characters may be intertwined, comic and tragic subjects and themes may both be present and words may even be incorporated to accentuate meanings. In fact, as mime increasingly incorporates new techniques and possibilities, there can often be some confusion about what is meant by the term mime. Perhaps it is therefore best to remember it as simply a significant element of drama and theatre as well as a varied and ever-changing art form.