★ ★
Stephen Robinson’s mime artist alter-ego Deaf Mimo, is a Chaplinesque study of the hallmarks of ‘silent comedy’. As a hearing audience member, I asked deaf punters whether ‘mime was an artform of the deaf community?’, to which many of the signed replies were ‘I don’t particularly like mime’.
Deaf Mimo, seemed rather tired and lacklustre, the family audience rather bored, and although Robinson delivered as an accomplished mime artist, his interaction with a coat on a hat-stand particularly inspired, it didn’t feel as though it was hitting its mark.
I can’t fault the brilliant programming of Edinburgh Deaf Festival to include mime as part of its schedule, as in a larger context, it makes total sense to have an act rely solely on movement to communicate, it could be seen as an early stage in the evolution in deaf performance. When putting it alongside BSL and V V performances, it shows how far we’ve come. As part of the larger festival, Deaf Mimo is justified, although on its own, it’s not that entertaining.
[This review is written by someone from the hearing community. We understand our privilege creates a bias in our writing, we always seek to include reviews by the community for the community, and would welcome reviews that challenge this one.]
