A treat for the mind.
Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, CA. 8:00pm - 9:30pm.
Mummenshanz is celebrating fifty years of performing around the world, so they performed various silent acts from the last five decades. Mummenshanz is known for silent mime shows, where they portray emotion through dancing and elaborate costumes. They started last nights show opening the curtain with a life-sized hand.
Mummenshanz knows how to trick and entertain the mind with the use of black and bright color contrast. They employed various characters, such as a blob with a taste for spiky treats to their well-known clay masks. While their performances were silly and triggered laughter from the audience many times throughout the night, Mummenshanz remained smart and creative. With their larger than life costumes and expressive dancing they portrayed relationships, intimacy, kindness, sensibility, excitement, and so forth.
Some standouts performances from the night.
One of the first performances that caught my attention was the sea and sailboat act. There was an inflated balloon that represented the ocean, and a small sailboat with a single flashing light. The auditorium was quiet and all that was heard was the soft ruffling of the balloon as the sea carried the boat. Then, lightning struck and the sea swallowed the small sailboat.
Another outstanding performance, was the handshake. Again, they brought out the human-sized hands and with the two hands they danced, patted the audience, and told a story without a word.
Beautiful and intricate show.
