Marcel Marceau: Mime of Life
Todd Farley, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Minds in the Making
September 30, 2007

Editor's Note: Todd and Marilyn Farley studied mime in Paris, France, with Marcel Marceau from 1984-1987, visited with him in the following years and hosted him in California at their Mimeistry College in 2002. (www.mimeistry.com). Todd Farley currently teaches at Calvin College in the Communication Arts and Sciences department, and will be presenting a Mimodrama of “Alice in Wonderland” dedicated to the memory of his mentor, Marcel Marceau (Jan. 31-Feb. 2 and Feb. 7-9, 2008, in the Calvin College Lab Theatre).

Marcel Marceau, 1923-2007 (public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

As I exited the stage after performing a mime last week my son Jeremy whispered to me: “Dad, Marcel Marceau is dead.” At the same moment the crowd stood to their feet and applauded my performance, and I thought of this quote:

“He asked those friends of his who had been admitted into his chamber whether they thought he had acted the mime of life in a fitting manner. Then he added these words: ‘since well I’ve played my part, all clap your hands, and from the stage dismiss me with applause.’ And so Caesar Augustus went to his death...”

And I thought, Marcel Marceau… we dismiss you from the stage of life with applause.

His death has been announced worldwide, his life lauded. But let me take you behind the curtain, behind the stage into a little known part of his life, into one of his inner dressing rooms. Let me share two snapshots of the chamber of his soul.

I was in Paris, France in 1986. I had just finished presenting my mime on the crucifixion and stood before the Maestro waiting his critique, “Todd, the passion of Christ… it is a great mystery,” Marceau said with a furrowed brow, “God in us, on earth—dying…” Then he turned to the rest of the class. “We are all to bring God to the stage, to make our audience laugh and cry as we catch eternity…here in us.” Marceau believed that when we enter the stage, we touch the divine and share it with the audience. Now, this is not to say he was exclusive about Christ—he spoke of all religions and faiths with great fervor and support—though he seemed to hold a special spot for Christ’s passion.

In 2002, we again performed for Marceau, this time at our Mimeistry workshop in California. Our pieces were about Mary and Jesus, and God’s love for Adam. After we finished he turned to our gathered students and said, “This is what mime can do! Show the ‘mystere,’ the mystery of life, of creation, of passion! … Without words, the power of silence and posture can capture the transcendent love and agony! Like the Creator’s love and death.”

Later that week, he spoke at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he showed his spiritually-themed mimes like “Creation of the World” and “The Hands”—which is about the struggle of good and evil, and the overcoming of evil by sacrifice.

He said he loved speaking to those seminarians—those whose passion was of the Spirit—for he believed he himself was a spiritual man whose message was beyond mere entertainment. His was a message of the human ecstasy and angst, a profound divine passion that he play well on the stage of life.

Now that voice has gone beyond its silence, beyond our arena. In tribute, for all who have faith, let us dismiss him from the mime of life with applause.

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