Pakatelas & Co. meets The San Francisco Mime Troupe: A Review of the July 8, 2009 performance @ CSU Summer Arts, Fresno, CA.

I sat at the top of the John Wright Theater at Fresno State and had the time of my life. Yeah, this one of those reviews riddled with cliches, those overused metaphors I try to avoid. I am an English teacher so I should know better. And my girlfriend, who went with me to see the world famous San Francisco Mime Troupe, who also has a degree in English, couldn’t help to avoid the cliché herself.
“Are they going to act without talking?” She mimes as if she were in a box, trapped and banging to be let out. We have all seen this and I laugh outloud because I can picture her on stage.
She had never seen nor heard of the troupe. I only read about the famous performances; benefit plays for the Black Panthers in the sixties, their radically political dramas. So, in essence, we were only familiar with our carbon-cutout references.
Not only did the San Francisco Mime Troupe talk, they sang! The actors danced and weaved with spider-like precision; they were true masters in the art of slapstick and physical comedy and the capacity crowd, whether a longtime fan or new ones like me and Esmeralda; dare I say cliché #2?: felt as if we were in the presence of greatness. Even the energy in the theater topped a Patrick Contreras concert (who is quickly becoming the standard in Fresno’s rock scene); the SFMT are the best of the best, are laying it down, are taking names and running away with the title.
Oh, how the English majors are cringing in their literary britches! Frankly, my bookworm darlings, I don’t give a damn! The San Francisco Mime Troupe rocked and I got the lipstick tattoo on the cheek to prove it.