San Francisco Mime Troupe

The San Francisco Mime Troupe is one of the world's great things. It brings joy and hysterics to all who behold it. Not just those whose narrow preconceptions drive them into unflinching hatred for all authority; not just those who make love with a red flag under the mattress. The Mime Troupe's not just for May 2nd, but for all seasons.

We who love this gusty little western group were especially distraught yesterday at the news of their kidnapping in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, by the CIA. Apparently in an effort to blacken the Mime Troupe's image six CIA agents put on a performance last night at Sanders Theatre that had fake written all over it. It was vulgar, unfunny and at the first act's end a rather uncomfortable pom-pom girl conducted the audience in a chorus of Stokely Carmichael's chant, "Hell no, we won't go." The CIA's plan backfired, though, because the audience was so determined to like the widely-touted Mime Troupe, that it cheered such unmistakably CIA-authored lines as "Would a hippie--a real hippie--go to university where in the middle of the campus there's a square?" and "Go to your room and close all the drapes and blinds, and don't let none of the Venetians in."

In its cruel ruse, the CIA's team of writers resorted even to such time-worn tricks as the formless plot, the dialect joke, and the late-President slur. But again the audience refused to see its vision dashed, and the intelligence men's most basic weapon--mimic ability--carried the show. On top of which, the CIA as usual was technically flawless. The set it put together, even forgetting the incredibly short notice it had for last night's performance, was remarkable. So were the uniformly clever and colorful costumes. This being a commedia dell'arte with updated themes and references, it required character masks, and these were wonderfully expressive.

Last night's performance derived loosely from an 18th century commedia by Carlo Goldoni, reset to an anti-Vietnam theme. Yet that theme was so consciously overplayed, so heavily milked, so loudly belabored, that it was hard to believe it could have meant much to an audience so obviously in agreement with it.