San Francisco Mime Troupe

Finally made it! Ripple Effect was delightful in Dol​.Pk. this weekend… had to leave halfway through the show on Sunday and came back for the last half on Monday. Delightfully accurate skewering of non-​informed techies. And that 70’s number!

I went to my first Mime Troupe play today in Berkeley and will most definitely be going to the show in Oakland next week. It was a gorgeous day out in a pretty nice park (location location location) and a perfect way to spend a couple hours on a Sunday. The show was funny and kept my attention well enough — people watching was more fun. It was the perfect length and the actors were AMAZING. The only thing I didn’t like was how they kind of hounded the audience for donations. I love that they put on a free show, and I was planning on leaving a donation afterwards… but don’t put on a free show and then make people feel guilty for not tipping… and even for not tipping enough… that’s really rude.
Otherwise — tons of fun, as I said… I’ll be back next week!

Ripple Effect is torn from the headlines … of an alt-​weekly. Funny show, well-​acted, preachy yes but we are all converts so bring it!

I’m writing this review to save other people their time (and up-​front recommended $ 20 donation, if you give it with any expectations) … I don’t mean to hurt anyone involved.
This year’s show, Oil + Water, was the worst (free, or paid) show I’ve ever seen anywhere, almost entirely because of the script– plot, dialogue, song lyrics, everything. (The production quality is also low and the acting cheesy, but that’s endearing. Devil actress was great.)
If a high school theater group had put this together you’d be appreciative– sure, there’s zero subtlety, a million cliches, and not much cleverness to make up for it– but at least they’re passionate about the world! If your college activist theater group performed this, and your dormmate wrote it, you’d be really embarrassed at how unsophisticated they were. And these were adults. I wasn’t expecting much, just something of a quality you might see at Exit Theatre or any small stage in SF. Or improv, or storytelling, or anything…
I’d never heard of the SF Mime Troupe until an actress at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival recommended it; she was in it for 20 years. Apparently it’s Tony award winning. But it’s not like that now. If you go in with even minimal expectations, you’re going to be shocked. Sorry, I’m sure they’re wonderful people and worked really hard on this… maybe it’s a little better when it’s outdoors in the park and you’re not paying full attention. That sounds harsh, but… it’s so heavy-​handed (and not self-​aware about it) and loudly obvious that instead of reinforcing any messages or shared values, it just shuts down your brain.
(Yes, this review is assuming you wholeheartedly share the play’s pro-​environment/​anti-​corporate ideology, like most SF residents do to some extent– if you don’t, you may enjoy watching it if you want to feel smugly superior…)
I’d actually love to know if I missed something (other than the second half), please message me if so!

Go ahead, throw the rotten tomatoes at me but know that I tried. I tried to continue to love the Mime Troupe despite the downward trajectory of the quality of their plays. I tried to sally forth in the interest of a long-​standing tradition of attending their Dolores Park shows on 4^th of July weekend or on Labor Day. I tried but their plays kept getting more obscure and less fun. In recent years, the friends I attend with began suggesting we could «do something else» but I held up the tradition-​torch and insisted this be part of our day. No longer.
The Mime Troupe has fallen on hard (er) times this year. Loss of funding has caused them to cut their season short and cut actors. This year they’re putting on two 1-​act plays that loosely hang together and I use the word «loosely» loosely. Neither play grabbed the attention of anyone in my group and neither play held it. Nor did we find the songs fun or engaging. The whole experience was just sad, especially in light of how enjoyable it had been even as recently as 5 years ago.
I want the Mime Troupe to succeed again. I want their stage packed with crazily colorful actors, interesting props, and the belting out of fun songs accompanied by a bevy of live musicians. I really do and I hope the 2013 season serves as a wake-​up call to those in charge. There’s so many ways they could improve the experience and make it relevant to audiences who will sustain them in 2014 and beyond. I said it in an earlier review (when I was still in their court) so I won’t repeat myself in detail, but a good hard look at what people want and how to give it to them might not hurt this organization and in the long run, it might benefit them greatly. I hope the Mime Troupe — in some format — continues to exist for another 50 years but until they take some steps to move themselves into the present day I suspect that they’ll continue to find financing shows an issue.
Meanwhile, I’ll be enjoying my July 4^th and Labor Day at Stern Grove. Sorry Mime Troupe.

I think that the Mime troupe is a treasure. They perform for free in Bay Area parks, ask only for donations from those who can afford it, give so much of their time, perform politically relevant themes each and every year. It’s also an opportunity to come together with the Progressive community and celebrate (it’s been the most responsible thing I can do on July 4^th instead of cheering on the flag and ain’t I proud to be an American these days when I hardly am.
This year’s show is about the pipeline that may be coming down across America soon. one of the most important things I could consider on July 4.

Free theater in Dolores Park!!!
My first surprise: The SF Mime Troupe talks! A lot!!! I should’ve read their website a little more carefully, but I wasn’t expecting something spoken. I wasn’t sitting that far back in the audience, but I had a really hard time hearing the show, and possibly as a result of that, trouble following the plot. I liked the singing, music, and dancing the most.
Not being a hardcore political person, I enjoyed the characters in the audience perhaps even more than the show itself! I’m not sure I’ll be returning to see the Mime Troupe again, but it was a funny thing to go to once.

We’ve stumbled by the SF Mime Troupe’s house on Treat many times. I always snicker and imagine a house full of people stuck in invisible cubes and pulling themselves along invisible ropes. The closets are probably brimming with striped shirts and berets.
Today we accidentally caught the troupe’s annual show in Dolores Park. Here’s a shocker: The mimes talk! They sing! They almost don’t shut up in a 60 minute show about anarcho-facism’s superiority to: Obama, banks, corporations, non profits, and any generally employed person. And then they beg hardcore for $ donations.

Just saw their current show — «2012 — The Musical!» at Glen Park over the weekend. What a great show this year. Fun storyline, pointed and self-​effacing humor, singing and dancing and lots of soul. I highly recommend taking yourself to one of their upcoming shows and treating yourself to theater that will make you proud you live in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe, in my opinion, is one of San Francisco’s best treasures. It is a SF-​based Tony Award-​winning theatre company whose over-​the-​top social and political musical comedy is always outrageous and innovative.
Outside community activities are a big part of the city’s culture, and the audiences are often as entertaining as the shows. The troupe asks for donations (which I am always happy to give), and the shows take place in San Francisco parks. I always go to Dolores park.
So grab a picnic basket, a blanket, your family, friends, neighbors, dogs, just yourself or whatever, and head down to be a part of one of San Francisco’s best treasures.

OMG. The audience is as interesting as the play itself! We got to see them this past weekend up in the Garberville area, and you can bet the crowd there bring their own medications… It was like looking at Woodstock participants, only 40 years later (…uhmmm…).
But the play itse’f was awesome, and so much fun. And this year it involved hemp clothing and Om-​chanting worker-​firing factory owners, bad guys, good guys… it was so much fun. And the Mateel Community Center served a delicious-​looking vegetarian (of course) lasagna and salad.
No, probably not good for kids. The only kids there may have belonged to some of those aging hippies, but these kids were at least in their 30’s. It went for over an hour, the content was political… and unless your kids carry around Mao’s Little Red Book, I doubt that they’d enjoy the play.
Heck. I NEVER buy T-​shirts. I BOUGHT a T-​shirt. I must have gotten the contact high from somewhere… Hip, hip, huzzah for the SFMT! I’m hooked!!!

A venerable SF tradition/​Institution, and a guaranteed kickass good show all in one. It just doesn’t get better than the SF Mime Troupe.

I’ve been watching the Mime Troupe for about 25 years. While the quality may vary somewhat, it’s always topical, fun and on the right side of politics. The Mime Troupe rocks and we often find it to be better theater than anything you can pay the big bucks for. BTW, give them at least 10 bucks when you go. It shouldn’t be free.

For the first time in my life, someone was able to make me feel good about thinking too much about all these important things and not knowing how to make sense of it.
Turn it into art!
Celebrate the absurdity!
Thank you guys… you are a phenomenal group. Thank you so much!
You encapsulate so much of the spirit and culture of the Bay Area.

We just saw the SFMT’s current production, «Red State» this past weekend, Once again it was Lively! Brilliant! Funny! and totally entertaining.
The SF MT has been around for almost 50 years. I started watching them in the 1980’s and have always been amazed at their passion, energy and talent!
Another not to be missed production.
Check their website for their schedule.
It’s FREE! (Please give them donations)
Here is the synopsis from their website:
«Red State» is the current production. It is lively,
A COLORFUL ELECTION YEAR SATIRE
What if a small town found itself at the forefront of a political fight? It’s Election Day in small town America, and that’s what happens when, due to an Electoral College tie, the entire Presidential Election comes down to the one tiny town. Suddenly, the ignored, disregarded Bluebird, Kansas is the most important town in America. And they are being pressured to quickly cast the deciding vote, and vote the «right way.»
But what would happen if they decided to wait? Can one little town hold an entire nation’s election hostage? Should it? Is bread on the farm house dinner table tonight more important than deciding who sits at the Oval Office desk tomorrow? Yep, this election could take a while. ..

I’m not into musicals and don’t often go to the theater but I never miss a season of the SF Mime Troupe if I can help it. This cast rocks!!!
Velina Brown is my shero.

We caught the SF Mime Troupe’s fourth of July show in Dolores park, and they were brilliant! They put on a great show with very few people and an even smaller stage. The play we saw, «Red State», was well conceived, and even more well-​performed.
Their politics are extremely left facing, as one would expect in San Francisco, and the whole play was like a Marxist comedy (duh). It lasted an hour and 45 minutes, and the only reason I mention this is because the Chronicle, in its inimitable wisdom, listed the SF Mime Troupe’s performance as a great thing to do with kids on the fourth.
I’m not holding the SFMT responsible for some Weekend Section Editor at the Chronicle’s poor judgment, but… any show that opens up with a guy giving the whole crowd a double barreled f-​you is hardly kid’s fare. That, and political humor is really hard to explain to a toddler.
That said, we thoroughly enjoyed the SF Mime Troupe. The crowd was almost as entertaining as the show onstage (aging hippies are such fun. To mock), and the Mime Troupe’s humor is spot on. For free, extremely liberal, even Marxist plays in Dolores Park, it doesn’t get any better than this.

When I was in massage school, one of the things we had to do was go out into the community and provide free massages to an organization. I looked through the book and saw SF Opera, and the SF Mime Troupe. Well, the opera company is only 6 blocks from my house, so I gave them a call first, and they were disorganized and haughty. Scratch them off the list. Next, I called the SFMT, and while the person who had originally signed them up no longer worked there, they were enthusiastic to have me there. I enjoyed my chance to interact with them on a deeper level than just being a member of the audience, and I go to all of their shows.
While sometimes a little too preachy and heavy-​handed, their shows are always lively and entertaining, and they bring awareness to issues that are either under-​reported in the press, or not reported at all. I love that the Troupe is a collective and put their socialist values to practice, too.

I’ve seen the SF Mime Troupe a couple times now, and my opinion about them continues to evolve. They are a San Francisco institution, no doubt about that, and the fact that they continue on after so many years is inspiring.
When I first saw them, I wanted them to kick my ass and they didn’t. If you’re of the liberal/​progressive persuasion, they reinforce what you already believe. If you’re of the conservative/​republican persuasion, they are easily dismissable. They probably decided early on that they weren’t out to change minds, that instead they would focus on inspiring likeminded individuals towards activism. I’ve hung out with some members of the troupe, and they are as personally committed to their politics as you’d guess from their performances.
I’m sure their hometown SF audiences are more sympathetic then audiences in the smaller NoCal areas that they visit (they tour, which makes me love them more). And any modern company that mirrors the roving Dell Arte players of the past so well isn’t just an anachronism, it’s a reminder of what we’ve lost, and what we can gain again.
In terms of their artistry, Michael Gene Sullivan is a great writer, and he can wail. The troupe has few weaknesses; their broad buffoonery may not please everyone, but it’s an intentional style, and an important one.
I’ve seen their current show Making a Killing twice now, once in Dolores Park and once at Yerba Buena Gardens. I preferred the Yerba Buena setting; the skyline behind the stage added to their power. And the audience was bigger, and a little more into it. I enjoyed the show itself more, although I think the script missed some opportunities about its subject matter (war profiteering has so much to be mined and needed more attention; cost-​plus contracting was explained with two sentences where it deserved a whole song).
In any case, I left feeling a little better about the world and happy that these voices are still being heard. My parents, in from Connecticut, loved it. Five stars for the troupe, four for the show. Go see them, throw money into their hat, and tell the actors what you think.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe has been around for a long time. This Tony Award-​winning company run by a group of theatre artists (know as «the collective») presents one new politically targeted original musical every year.
The members are very dedicated and their shows have a long history of innovation and pushing the boundaries of political theatre. Some years the productions are brilliant, others not so much. It really depends on the year. That being said the majority tends to be quite good. My biggest gripe is they only produce one show a year.
What makes the Mime Troupe experience so rich is that the shows are usually outside in Bay Area Parks, they’re free!!, and very relevant to the current political situation. And hey it’s a musical, so that’s fun too. Their season always begins on July 4^th in Dolores Park. So grab some friends, a blanket, some food and head out to the park!