Pantomime Artist Bill Bowers is Having his Say

Bill Bowers tells a great story, his own. Watching Bowers, a mime, perform his It Goes Without Saying, part of Two River Theaters Flashes of Brilliance series, you feel that these moments from his life have been conversation pieces, confessions, stories to laugh and cry over that he’s shared with friends and lovers and fellow performers, and maybe even a therapist or two, over the years and now they are, just like every muscular memory in Bowers sinew, part of the performance of his life. 

Indeed, to witness Bowers’ performance, in this small black box theater, this intimate space that makes the audience more confidant, than stranger, is to feel as if you are watching actual human development. Bowers physically grows up before you and grows wise from the many physical and emotional experiences that his body and soul relates.

Bowers opens his show with classic wide-eyed pantomime, escaping through invisible doors, windows, walls, out of the darkness, into the light until he is finally born to the audience and it is then that he surprises with words. So Bowers is a mime that speaks or a storyteller who mimes. Either way…his stories unfold with such a physical accuracy that you feel every move, you see what is unseen and you know that Bowers himself is feeling and seeing it as well. Call it sense memory or affective memory…the paths to Bowers most secluded thoughts and revelations are kept in his physicality.

He opens his show with a story about a film experience he had. Bowers has done the mime thing in films and television, including Two Weeks Notice with Hugh Grant and many appearances as the silent this or that in daytime dramas, soaps. 

Bowers struck up a conversation with Grant, who was curious about his work. In describing what it is he does to Grant, “collecting” life moments in his bones, capturing a physical photograph, Bowers quickly established the curious working life of a mime and the art as well. Not all jobs have been as glamorous as dialoguing with the likes of Grant. He has played Bruce the Spruce, a Christmas tree at B. Altman’s department store and that lesser known super hero Seatbelt Man on the New Jersey Turnpike. 

Bowers’ show business memories are funny, touching and even harrowing. When he runs late for an actual theatrical off-Broadway gig in Cabaret, because of his Spruce role, the telling of the story, in all of its frustration and desperation leaves both Bowers and the audience breathless.

Bowers life in art, the good, the bad and the ugly, is tied like a knot to the art of his life, this bio-piece. His career ups and downs naturally lead into his personal highs and lows. His understanding at a young age that he was different is the stage where he plays the discovery of his love of theater and his teacher, Mr. D. Bowers sexuality is simply and honestly and necessarily woven into the work. Bowers expresses his love life so clearly and tenderly that no dissection between gay or straight is even necessary, love is love and loss, when it comes to Bowers, his mate died of an inoperable brain tumor, is like a slow motion ballet from the bed to the grave. 

It Goes Without Saying traces Bowers’ life trail from his childhood in Montana, in a quiet family, in big quiet country at a time when discretion or repression was considered the better part of valor, all the way to his present life. His story told, his muscles worked from the contractions of memory, of past guff and glory, his demons exorcised. The end of Bowers muscular pantomiming performance, 75 or so minutes without rest, is arms wide open, reaching to the horizons of Montana, the edges of the stage, the openness of his story. Bill Bowers is a mime who tells a great story, his own.

It Goes Without Saying, is in a limited run at Two River Theater. It closes following a Sunday 3PM Matinee. The Marion Huber black box theater space seats 99. Make an effort to fill one of them. You may never tell a story the same way ever again.

To view video of Bowers performing pieces from It Goes Without Saying, visit his youtube page.