The importance of music in pantomime

“In pantomime every single episode, each movement in each episode (its plastic modulations)—as well as the gestures of every character and the groupings of the ensemble—are determined precisely by the music, by its changes in tempo, its modulations, its overall structure. In pantomime the rhythm of the movements, gestures, and groupings synchronized precisely with the rhythms of the music; a performance may be regarded as perfect only if the rhythm of the music and the rhythm of the stage are perfectly synchronized.”

– Vsevolod Meyerhold, Russian director

Meyerhold, Vsevolod (1969) Meyerhold on Theatre. Trans. Edward Braun. New York: Hill and Wang, p.144. Cited in: McManus, Donald (2003) No Kidding! Clown as Protagonist in Twentieth-Century Theater. Newark: University of Delaware Press, p.48.

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