By Nelson Pressley
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

To be a mime in the 21st century is heroic -- a strenuous walk into a headwind of public indifference, a flat-palmed, sad-faced push against the encroaching walls of dismal expectations.

Mimes. Yeesh.

Mark Jaster seems acutely aware of the anti-mime vibe that has shoved his craft nearly off the cultural map. Yet he soldiers on, blissfully sticking to the roots of his art in "The Seven Ages of Mime" at the Round House Theatre in Silver Spring.

It's not a puckish updating or a kitschy reworking; camp and postmodern sendups are beyond Jaster's ken. Instead, he's created an hour-long, kid-friendly show that draws on great moments of the art. It's full of classic clowning, with riffs on everything from Italian commedia dell'arte to the Marx Brothers.

Jaster starts in a toga as Livius, a mighty thespian who, ah, ahem -- drat! -- has lost his voice, and therefore has to pantomime while his lovely assistant (Sabrina Mandell) narrates the myth of Daphne. As Daphne is pursued by Apollo and eventually turned into a laurel tree, Jaster enacts the tale with terpsichorean grace, his feet sliding elegantly on the floor as he plays the lusty chaser, then the fearful chased. He even convincingly plays a river, arms rippling like water over rocks.

The show's not always that lively -- it's a considered stroll down memory lane, with pauses that sometimes feel like full stops -- but it's consistently winsome. Even the rough-and-tumble commedia episode has a charmingly delicate quality. Sure, Jaster soars like a gymnast through a window and nails a pratfall, but his Arlecchino is like a sweetly bumbling Gilligan, easily distracted by his humble appetites. Teased by the promise of food, he offers a childish pelvic wiggle as he excitedly murmurs, "Macaroni! Tiramisu!" in the only scene in which he plays a speaking character.

Jaster's Chaplin has a touch of swagger, too, in a nod to "Modern Times." (The show's poster, featuring Jaster as a ringer for the Little Tramp, shrewdly fits right in with the AFI Silver Theatre posters next door.) Yet vulnerability is hard-wired not just to the seemingly inevitable parade of underdogs in comically risky situations, but to how they're played, whether it's David or a hammy, winded Goliath. Jaster's sturdy body, like Chaplin's, and like Marcel Marceau's (with whom Jaster studied), is a jeweler's tool, adroit and precise. The characters are fragile, each athletic movement is exquisitely controlled, and his supple face crumples thoroughly when the heart has reason to sink.

In other words, this is mime as you last saw it on the Merv Griffin show in the 1970s, or watching "Duck Soup" on cable. Mandell, Jaster's wife, makes an appealing partner, rough-hewn in the Italian scene (performed in Italian), nimble as his mischievous mirror image, touching as they try to deal with a pesky cage. From nearly every angle, "Seven Ages" looks like an old-fashioned valentine.

The Seven Ages of Mime, created and performed by Mark Jaster. Lighting design, Justin Thomas; sound design, Matthew M. Nielson; outside eye, Nick Olcott. Through Jan. 28 at Round House Theatre Silver Spring, 8641 Colesville Rd. Call 240-644-1100 or visit http://www.roundhousetheatre.org.