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Mime for the millennium >> Slava's Snowshow takes the clown out of Russia
by ADAM "PIERROT" GOLLNER
Mirror: What made Slava decide to get into being a mime? Slava: When he was born, it was like a mark on him. M: Mime was a mark on him? S: Because he could only follow this road of mime. God. God told him that it would be so, because it was in him. It was something that he was born with. M: How would he define what a mime does? S: The biggest expression of a person's life, it's through the movement, through the feeling, through the connections and all that--that's how you become a mime. Slava feels almost bad that such an important part of the human person is hidden. The part that you have to express. And he wants to express it through the mime. M: Through the mime. S: Yes, because through the speech we can only express so much. Sometimes in a person's eyes, you can tell much more than in words. M: As an artist, what does Slava think of modern mimes? S: Slava calls today's mimes a "theatre of different images." The old mime is dead, because the language was not sincere and was sterilized. The new mime has been reborn. The mime will always exist, but it has to find new expression. M: What, then, does he think of the mime on the street? Or those people who are painted all in white, gold or bronze and who just stand there motionless? S: Mime is the language of the street. It's also carnival tricks--basics of the fair. These people bring an unreal world into the reality of our lives. We must have dreams. M: How was the mime parade? S: It was 800 actors of the mime, for the first time in Russia. In the end, they all did the same thing, you know, pulling the rope or jumping in the cage. But there were also some new ideas. Everybody understood that the mime is very rich. M: Slava is influenced by Samuel Beckett. Is he an existential mime? Are all mimes existential, like "four walls" or "no way out"? S: Slava has a whole library of movies and books. Slava followed Marcel Marceau all over. Five years he spent for the mime. M: Yes, but what about existentialism and mimes? S: The old mime was very primitive. Now there is the completely new mime. A very metaphysical language. M: Why are children afraid of clowns? S: When the clown comes close, the kids, they scream, they cry, they go into hysteria. It's because they're afraid of different reality, but they love clowns. M: Slava is the president of a school called the Academy of Fools. Which does he see himself as really: clown, mime or fool? S: It's hard, because Slava takes each of these three to the maximum!
Slava's Snowshow at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Tuesdays through Sundays, July 21August 7, 8pm, $21.2536.25 |
After several botched attempts (including one 4 a.m. call to Siberia), we finally managed to get through to Slava Polounine, the doyen of modern theatrical mimes. Our talented translator droogie, Allana Barr, deserves credit not only because Slava can be rather elusive (preferring, undoubtedly, to communicate with his body), but also because she was translating for her childhood hero. An indication of Slava's popularity in Russia is that Mrs. Barr's husband described him as the Russian Red Skelton: "Everybody knows Red!"