THE BIG ISSUE The Big Issue - 11 January 2016 | Page 7

WorldMags.net PAUSE THE RANT MOTHER’S RUIN: TABLOID SPIN MIDDLE-AGE MUMS MAKE HEADLINES BUT POVERTY IS THE BIG INDICATOR, SAYS DR PHIL HARRISON JOSEPH SEELIG How to speak the language of mime T he ‘M’ word comes with a long, distinguished history. The earliest mimes were vital ingredients of ancient Greek dramas. Lewd and raucous, they were often anything but silent. Fast forward several centuries, the mime performer has lost his voice but with his mastery of movement he needs no words to express emotions, thoughts and actions. At the dawn of the film era, artists – including Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton – entertained the world using mime. Rowan Atkinson became their contem- porary equivalent. Toby Jones is a shining example of someone with a background in mime. He went to the Jacques Lecoq school in Paris. It teaches people to use their bodies, not just stand there and declaim Shakespeare. When we think of mime today, one name comes to mind: Marcel Marceau. Such was his fame that he practically came to be an art form himself, creating a character whose white make-up and costume is almost univer- sally associated with the ‘M’ word. Mime came to mean Marceau. We invited him to speak at the London Inter- national Mime Festival one year. It was astonishing – someone who spent his life practising a profession in which he never spoke was simply a great orator. But there’s more to it than Marceau. There exists a glorious range of theatre styles – circus, puppetry, shadow and object theatre – in which stories are told without words. They’re internationally accessible, touching everyone directly and immediately with no language barrier to overcome. More than that, people sometimes long for silence in our incessantly noisy, chattering world, a silence in which they can bring their own imagination into play. In a conventional perfor- mance where there are words, it is difficult to make a different interpretation from that of the performer – but when you go to visual theatre it is entirely what you make of the experience. People love that freedom. One of the most successful pieces of theatre in recent years is War Horse. Audiences do not come out saying, ‘so and so was marvellous’, they remember the horse. It is an astonishing piece of visual theatre that transforms a very good story – it makes it magic. It is a cliché to say that movement is as eloquent as spoken language. Well, it may or may not be but it certainly is very eloquent. J Seelig is the London International Mime Festival’s founder. This year it runs until Feb 6. mimelondon.com THE BIG ISSUE / p7 / January 11-17 2016 WorldMags.net Recent tabloid attention has focused on the drinking of middle-class, middle-aged women. It’s a fact that women are more susceptible to the damage of alcohol compared to men drinking the same amount. But the problem is more extensive than middle-class mothers having a glass of wine after the school run. In England and Wales, men account for over two thirds of hospital admissions for alcohol-related liver disease. Admission rates caused by liver disease vary according to income – the most deprived 20 per cent have significantly more admissions compared to the wealthiest 20 per cent. A man from a deprived background is nearly seven times more likely to need hospital admission for liver disease than a woman from a wealthy background, and a man is twice as likely to die of liver disease than a woman from the same background. Death from chronic liver disease is rising, so although middle-class women are an attractive target, let’s remember they’re not most at risk. We need to focus on improving the Nigel Farage: Opposes booze limits health of the most deprived and get over the message that drinking hazardously can harm the liver. If you take anything from this rant – don’t binge drink and don’t drink more than three days per week. Dr Phil Harrison is a consultant hepatologist, London Bridge Hospital O Tell us about a campaign or issue you care about and the change you want. @bigissue; [email protected]