S.F. Mime Troupe brings topical new comedy to Davis

By Jeff HuDson Enterprise

correspondent

The much-admired San Francisco Mime Troupe — which likes to stage a midsummer “guerrilla theater” performance in Davis as part of their annual Northern California tour — returns with a new show on Thursday, Aug. 3.

This year’s early-evening performance will be presented indoors, in the Brunelle Performance Hall at Davis High School, 315 W. 14th St. in Davis.

Tickets are free, but should be reserved in advance online at sfmt. org/event-details/richardbrunelle-hall-davis-3. Preshow music starts at 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m. A voluntary goodwill offering will be collected at the conclusion of the 80-minute show.

Founded way back in 1959 (in San Francisco’s now famous “Beatnik Era”), the San Francisco Mime Troupe has been staging feisty, ripped-fromthe-headlines satire (sometimes mocking one or two sacred cows) for a long, long time. The Troupe does not perform Marcel Marceau-style “silent mime” — instead, the company cleaves to what it regards as the “original definition” of the word: “The exaggeration of daily life in story and song.”

The SF Mime Troupe’s sheer persistence and longevity over multiple decades netted the company a special Tony award in 1987. (And there is a Davis connection — the UC Davis Library’s Special Collections department hosts a trove of historic papers sprawling more than 77.4 linear feet of shelf space, documenting the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s activities in the 1960s and 1970s, the heyday of the Counterculture movement.)

To carry out its ongoing artistic mission, the S.F. Mime Troupe annually creates an original musical comedy that incorporates aspects of the revered tradition of Italian Commedia dell’Arte (entertainment for the common folk, dating back to the 1500s, usually spoofing the greedy rich, pretentious nobles and corrupt public officials), while simultaneously emulating selected conventions of cliff-hanger melodrama, mixed together with broad, raucous farce — all the while citing contemporary crises and social tensions prevalent in present-day Northern California. This summer’s Mime Troupe production is an example. Titled “Breakdown,” the plot centers on a young woman named Yume (the Japanese word for dream). Yume is homeless, and meets occasionally with a good-hearted social worker, but soon finds that receiving public aid involves more bureaucratic paperwork than compassion.

Along the way, Yume encounters Marcia, a young Black woman who is a Fox News commentator, who’s come to San Francisco to do a piece on the city’s filthy streets and “failed progressive policies.” The developing story is accompanied a lively original score, sung by the cast, and backed by a pit band, each skilled in more than one instrument.

For decades, the S.F. Mime Troupe’s annual summer show in Davis was performed outdoors. But in recent years, the scorching summer sun (heating up the concrete outdoor stage in Community Park), noxious smoke from raging Northern California wildfires, and the three-year-long COVID pandemic interfered with that tradition.

Many Davis residents (to say nothing of the SF Mime Troupe’s traveling cast and crew) let out a sigh of relief when the Mime Troupe’s annual show in Davis moved indoors a few years ago.