Drama Game: Mime room

Age: 7 to adult

Players: Whole class or small groups

Time: 10–25 minutes

Skills: Physical Theatre, Mime

One by one, participants create a room using mime

One person at a time enters a mimed room and carries out an activity using an imaginary object, then exits. After a few people have entered and exited, there will be several ‘objects’ in the room. The challenge is for each player to remember where other people's mimed objects are and to use them again.

Begin by setting a theme – for example an office. Open an imaginary door and step into ‘the office’. Now you need to use an object – so you could open an imaginary filing cabinet, take out a file and read it before replacing it. Leave the room by the same door or through a new one. Any doors created in this way should remain where they are!

Now ask for a volunteer to do something else in the office. Whoever is chosen should enter by one of the doors. He should use the filing cabinet, but also create another object through a new activity – for example he could make a cup of tea or open some mail. He leaves and someone else enters. Gradually the imaginary space is created in the audience's minds as each new object is created and previous ones are used. It's best to demonstrate with a small number of students to start with otherwise it may be difficult to remember where everything is.

Once you've demonstrated the activity, you can set up a new room. This time, explain that the type of room will not be announced in advance. The room will be created according to how people use it. Each person that enters must consider what activities and objects have been created and build on those ideas. Players should not try to change the room halfway-through! As before, each person creates something new as well as using some or all of the other objects.

Director's tips

• Little stories can be built up using this exercise. For example, if one person opens a letter and leaves it on a desk, someone else could enter and sneakily read that person's mail.
• Small objects can be brought into the space and moved around.