With his body, Marceau silently speaks

By Ana Paula Hofling

Famed mime Marcel Marceau shares a moment with an audience at the University of Hawai'i before receiving an honorary degree. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Honolulu had the rare privilege of witnessing the work of the legend of pantomime at Blaisdell Concert Hall these past two evenings.

It is almost a contradiction to begin to put into words the wordless performance of Marcel Marceau — wordless yet anything but silent.

Marceau performed scenes that evoked not only voices, noises and sounds created by our imaginations, but also bright colors and textures, on a bare stage.

The "Public Garden" was an example of Marceau's magic at work: a quotidian scene of people at a park was made rich by Marceau, who transformed himself into various characters. A blabbermouth crocheting lady talked incessantly while her husband nodded distractedly; a helium balloon vendor watched as one of his customers floated away. One minute Marceau is a gelato vendor, the next he is the little kid licking his gelato off his sugar cone.

Most of Marceau's scenes follow a story line, although in "Creation of the World" and "The Hands", Marceau's hands and arms become dancers and the music becomes an element that supports the dance.

The use of music throughout the performance is sparse yet well distributed. Music often introduces of finalizes a story; sometimes it is part of the story itself, as in "Bip as Street Musician", where Bip, Marceau's famous clownish character, goes from street violinist to unwilling cymbal player in a band.

Everything about Marceau is expressive, his hands, his arms, his torso, his legs, his face.

In "The Mask Maker," which closed the show, Marceau exhibits his virtuosity when the mask maker decides to try on different masks. While changing his face into different "masks" by running his hands in front of it, as if putting on a mask, a "happy mask" gets stuck. Marceau conveys despair with his body only as he tries to remove the mask, while his face is frozen into an exaggerated smile, creating a powerful drama with this use of counterpoint.

Two graduates the International School of Mime Marcel Marceau in Paris, assisted the performer. After several curtain calls and a standing ovation, Marceau threw an imaginary flower into the audience, and disappeared into the red curtain.

Ana Paula Hofling teaches ballet at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.