14 - Laughter on Display: Mimic Performances and the Danger of Laughing in Byzantium

Summary

Humour and performance are inextricably linked together by the performers we conventionally describe as ‘mimes’ – gelōtopoios, geloiastēs, gelōtoponos. Mimes are probably the most elusive part of the Byzantine performative tradition; the nature of mimic performances is difficult to ascertain, as they left no material traces; there are no scripts, texts or detailed illustrations of performances (the only exception being the illustrations of acrobats and music entertainers). Visual sources regarding the costumes worn by mimes are equally unreliable and can be interpreted in various ways. This has led modern scholars to be extremely sceptical about the possibility of reconstructing any history of the Byzantine mime, despite the fact that there is adequate evidence for the existence of mimes throughout the Byzantine period. Moreover, in the light of existing evidence even the importance of the canons of the Council in Trullo (691/692), which are traditionally believed to put an end to theatrical performances, should be seriously reconsidered.

Perhaps the most important methodological problem is to define what ‘mime’ – both as an actor and a performance – meant in Byzantium. Sources offer an abundance of terms to describe entertainers: mimos, skēnikos, paigniōtēs and the already mentioned gelōtopoios, geloiastēs, gelōtoponos. In fact, it seems that some terms were used interchangeably and could have a wide range of meanings. Perhaps at some point the term ‘mime’ came to signify not only the mimic actor, but also ‘a mighty company of lesser entertainers, many of whom must have provided amusement and interest during the performance of mimic drama’. In other words, the term gradually shifted in meaning, ceasing to denote ‘a mime’ in the Roman sense of the word and, instead, being used to denote various entertainers whose detailed nature is difficult to grasp. There is not one single piece of evidence for the existence of mimographs in Byzantium. In other words, Byzantine mimes left the stage and started performing on the streets as jugglers, acrobats and, to use a modern word, clowns. When mentioning mimes in his book of advice, Kekaumenos (eleventh century) very often does so in connection with the qualification politikos – ‘zur Stadt gehorig, volkstumlich’ (‘belonging to the city, folksy’).