The San Francisco Mime Troupe was in my hometown last weekend with its hilarious new show “Making a Killing” described by the San Francisco Chronicle as the “Mime Troupe’s most direct grapple yet with the war in Iraq”

Before you start imagining white-faced figures soundlessly miming a battle scene, let me reassure you that the SFMT is quite vocal and that their new show is packed with “more song and dance than a Bush press conference.” The Mime in SFMT refers to an ancient Greek form of theater which appealed to the common people and often made fun of the authorities. As the troupe’s web site states:

The San Francisco Mime Troupe does not do pantomime. We mean ‘mime’ in the ancient sense: to mimic. We are satirists, seeking to make you laugh at the absurdities of contemporary life and at the same time, see their causes. We’ve done shows about most of the burning issues of our time, generally shows that debunked the official story. We perform everywhere from public parks to palaces of culture, aiming to reach the broadest possible audience.

Last year’s show was title “Godfellas” and featured a “syndicate” of mobsters, nuns, preachers attempt to take over America. The clip below has very poor sound quality, but it’s a great scene. Our heroine, an atheist schoolteacher who has lost her job and her lover when a faith-based group takes over her after-school tutoring center, teeters on the verge of jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. But she and the other characters, a religious couple who have lost their son in the war and an Indian immigrant, find a new purpose in life - reclaiming “reason and liberty.” I especially like the park ranger with his “Suicide Prevention for Dummies” book.

(BTW, the big red book the teacher is clutching is a collection of the sayings of Tom Paine.)

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