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Show Mime Joe Pitti has the tools, but needs better material by Rick Brough Utah's most famous mime, Gregg Goldston, is out of the state at the moment. But Joe Pitti bids well to keep the art alive. His talents were exhibited in "Doodles, A Mime Show" at the Egyptian Saturday night. While charming and at times very inventive, the show doesn't dazzle you. It is quite good for those interested in-terested in mime, and pleasant pleas-ant for a general audience seeking entertainment. Pitti has all the equipment of a first-rate mime artist. He knows how to make fluid use of a superbly-conditioned body. (Never mind his mime skills. Most of us would sell our souls for his physique!) He can be comic without ever losing his gracefulness. His fluidity is constant as his movements go from fast to slow, as his face shows the essence of joy, sadness or consterna-' consterna-' tion. The first act, "It Goes Without Saying" is Pitti's one-man show, using pieces from the standard panto-mimist's panto-mimist's trunk. He's at his gleeful best playing with a wad of imaginary bubble gum, using it as a lasso or blowing a bubble so big that he's trapped inside it. In the vignette "Growing Up," his humor is acutely perceptive in showing stages of one young man's wayward life. (On the adolescent baseball diamond, he keeps swinging to drive the ball out of the field, only to find it has dribbled behind him.) In his most inventive bit, Pitti hides behind a screen to show some romantic by-play between two umbrellas a skittish female, and a male who makes snark-snark noises as he moves in for the kill. Other pieces are more predictable and less interesting. in-teresting. Pitti encounters walls, fights the wind with an umbrella, watches a feather and a butterfly, and "tries on" masks. (His reaction when the "smiley" mask gets stuck is a highlight.) The entire show is aided by Peter Willardson's lighting light-ing design, with controls worked by Ingra Draper. Pitti begins his one-man piece by coming to life within a cone of light. With slow yet absorbing motions, he tests the boundaries of the light, summons the courage to look beyond it, and finally thrusts himself into the dark world beyond. As a running gag, Pitti also pursues a spotlight. Every time he jumps into it ; and assumes a "ta-da" pose, the light goes out. In "Love Expands" Pitti works with Darlene Casanova Cas-anova in the story of a boy ; and girl who emerge clumsily clumsi-ly from blue and pink cocoons, respectively. They meet a la Adam and Eve, ' fashion clothes for themselves, them-selves, fall in love, break up over jealousies, and later ' reconcile. The embodiment of their ; , love is a pantomimed ex- ' change they wrench the .', hearts from their bodies and trade, from quivering hand n to quivering hand. The impassioned imagery tends to make up for the stopy, which is familiar and drags a bit. '; Darlene Casanova plays ' well against Pitti. Her fright and wonderment are appeal- ' ing. But her movements don't have the grace and "; ease of her partner's. This is the first presenta- '. tion of Pitti's proposed , company, "Doodles." It will !; be presented again at the , ! Shire West Theatre in Salt : Lake on Dec. 16 and 17. Showtime is 8 p.m. r ti |
