Mummenschanz
Opening Night: December 21, 2010
Closing: January 8, 2011
Theater: Skirball Center for the Performing Arts @ NYU
The magic and wonder of Mummenschanz returns to North America for the first time since 2003 with a new program that showcases the incredible humor, versatility and pure imagination of the celebrated Swiss performance troupe. For nearly four decades, Mummenschanz has captivated audiences worldwide with its groundbreaking non-verbal theatre of movement and transformation. In the surreal, comic, wordless universe of Mummenschanz, everyday objects such as toilet paper, wires, tubes, and boxes spring to life to become fantastical characters, and abstract forms and ordinary shapes interact in surprising ways to reveal timeless truths about human connections and relationships. The troupe creates a playful and uniquely memorable experience through an inventive use of forms, shadow and light and creative manipulation of sculptural, expressive masks. The result is a visually stunning spectacle of family entertainment that sparks the imagination and transcends cultural barriers.
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
December 22, 2010
In 1977 The New York Times ran an article on Mummenschanz with the title “You’ve Never Seen Mimes Like This.” That was a long time ago. This granddaddy of wordless, whimsical nonsense spectacles is back in New York for the first time since 2003, along with its beloved giant faceless puppets (the hands opening the curtains, the life-size stick figures). What distinguishes “Mummenschanz” now is not originality. If anything, it’s hard to watch the parade of short, graceful sketches without thinking of how other companies have since done similar things, often better.
READ THE REVIEW
December 21, 2010
New Yorkers may remember "Mummenschanz" from the company’s 1977–80 run on Broadway. The Swiss trio’s unique brand of "nonverbal theater of performance and transformation"—using a variety of inventive large puppets and abstract costumes in short humorous skits—was something relatively new on the American scene, even though the troupe had formed five years earlier in Europe. Flash-forward more than 30 years and the group’s makeup has changed.
READ THE REVIEW
December 22, 2010
For most of the 70 intermisssionless minutes that you’re watching Mummenschanz, now at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts as part of a national tour, there will be an invisible little cartoon bubble over your head with the words, "How’d they do that?" inside. And it won’t matter if you’re 7 or 70.
READ THE REVIEW