Wonder without words

Quick: What does a mime look like? Chances are, the first thing that pops into your mind is a skinny Frenchman dressed in black and white trying to walk against imaginary wind or escape from an imaginary box. But Imago Theatre eschews the white face paint in favor of elaborate masks and full-body costumes, throwing in elements of dance, acrobatics and multimedia technology to create a show that may leave you as speechless as the performers.

Frogz appears Feb. 8 in the Nightingale Concert Hall at the University of Nevada, Reno, as part of the university’s Performing Arts Series. Despite the show’s title, Frogz will immerse you in a world populated with more than just amphibians; the original title was Frogs, Lizards, Orbs and Slinkys, but even that doesn’t describe the show accurately. Giant paper bags dance with more panache than the famed paper bag in American Beauty. Penguins play an odd, waddling game of musical chairs. Larvae do acrobatic tricks for you, and massive orbs with a life of their own play on a seesaw.

And yes, there are frogs (and lizards, and slinkys, and strange humanoid creations). But while their synchronized leaping is a treat to watch, the most amazing parts of their performance are the details: the quick twitch of the head, or the way the legs settle around the body. The Imago dancers don’t simply act like frogs—they become frogs. (See it for yourself at www.imagotheatre.com/Frogs.mov.)

Imago was founded in 1979 by Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad in Portland, Ore. Though they’ve created many productions in the past 20-plus years, Frogz has been their most popular show, playing on Broadway and all across the country.

Mouawad says physical theater reconnects audiences to the silly side of their personalities. As a New York Times reviewer described it, “Their efforts left everyone, including this dancegoer, feeling giggly.”

“It’s vaudeville,” Mouawad says. “I saw a movie in which a depressed, suicidal, comic-tragic character went to a Marx Brothers film and from laughing at the Marx Brothers he reawakened to the whimsy and lighter side of life. It changed his life and he was able to return to his tragic-laden world.

“Comedy, especially physical comedy, is reawakening. It reawakens our bodies to a giggly, uplifting sensation. A physical connection between performer and the audience can be delightful and life-altering. Seeing the finest of physical and clown theater has changed my own life.”

While the skill of the performer is key, Imago’s costumes, masks and props really bring the various creatures to life. Triffle and Mouawad draw heavily from the rich history of mask theater, from classical Greek tragedy to the tribal and ceremonial rites of Native Americans and Africans. Everything on stage appears to be straight out of a child’s dream—oversized and colorful, at times thoroughly realistic and at others wholly abstract.

“Here at Imago, when one performs in partnership with a mask, the actor and mask join to bring a new creature to life," Triffle says. "We call this ‘to carry a mask.' Both the actor and the mask metamorphose into something new. That is, the actor and the mask have both entered a new world, a pretend-yet-real otherworld."