Ancient Greece and Rome The performance of mime originates at its earliest in
Ancient Greece; the name is taken from a single masked dancer called
Pantomimus, although performances were not necessarily silent. The first recorded mime was Telestēs in the play
Seven Against Thebes by
Aeschylus. Tragic mime was developed by Puladēs of Kilikia; comic mime was developed by Bathullos of Alexandria. Mime () was an aspect of Roman theatre from its earliest times, paralleling the
Atellan farce in its improvisation (if without the latter's stock characters). It gradually began to replace the Atellanae as interludes [embolium] or
afterpieces (
exodium on the main theatre stages; became the sole dramatic event at the
Floralia in the second century BC; and in the following century received technical advances at the hands of
Publilius Syrus and
Decimus Laberius, who used expressions, situations and titles of Plautus' comedies. The mime was distinguished from other dramas by its absence of masks, and by the presence of female as well as male performers. Stock characters included the lead (or ), the stooge or stupidus,
Medieval Europe In medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as
mummer plays and later
dumbshows evolved. In early nineteenth-century Paris,
Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that have come to be known in modern times—the silent figure in whiteface.
In non-Western theatre Analogous performances are evident in the theatrical traditions of other civilizations.
Classical Indian musical theatre, although often erroneously labeled a "dance," is a group of theatrical forms in which the performer presents a narrative via stylized gesture, an array of hand positions, and mime illusions to play different characters, actions, and landscapes. Recitation, music, and even percussive footwork sometimes accompany the performance. The
Natya Shastra, an ancient treatise on theatre by
Bharata Muni, mentions silent performance, or
mukabhinaya. In
Kathakali, stories from Indian epics are told with facial expressions, hand signals and body motions. Performances are accompanied by songs narrating the story while the actors act out the scene, followed by actor detailing without background support of narrative song. The Japanese
Noh tradition has greatly influenced many contemporary mime and theatre practitioners including
Jacques Copeau and
Jacques Lecoq because of its use of mask work and highly physical performance style.
Butoh, though often referred to as a dance form, has been adopted by various theatre practitioners as well. ==Formats==