The Kid was Charlie Chaplin's first full-length feature film and is considered one of the greatest films of all time. It made a movie star of Chaplin who directed, starred in and composed the music for the film. 

 

Based loosely on that great film, the mime stage show of the same name, The Kid, is itself a masterpiece of simplicity, beauty and love created by the world’s greatest living mime, the French artist, Philippe Bizot. Bizot’s The Kid is the story of how a poor beggar discovers an abandoned orphan baby girl, recuses her, then raises her in his financially poor home which is none-the-less a place rich in love, tenderness and understanding. But when the girl reaches young womanhood, the poor man -- who has had zero relationship experience -- tries desperately to help his adopted daughter to understand romantic love, and the ways of courtship and marriage. Starring Bizot himself as the man, and a wonderful, Chinese actress/mime artist, Wei Yihuan as the girl, audiences in Beijing, where the work premiered, were moved to much wild laughter and many rich tears of sympathy as well. 

 

 

The Kid is a family show, in the very best sense of that phrase, showing familial love, hope and beauty through the lives of two people, a father and his daughter, as they struggle to move on with their separate lives while honoring their abiding affection for each other.

The Kid is thoroughly enjoyable to adults of all ages, and accessible and perfect for children from 5 years old and up. There are no cultural or language barriers to be found in the art of mime, for as Chaplin once said, “Mime is the quiet, powerful language of the human heart.”

 

For those familiar with the art of mime, you’ll not want to miss the work of Philippe Bizot, a true master of the art. For those of you unfamiliar with the gorgeous art of mime, you will discover that whereas language can often be used to conceal our hearts and their truths from each other, the clarifying gestures and beautiful movements of mime’s silence teach the human heart the true knowledge of itself, and consequently enhance our ability to love those around us. Please join Philippe Bizot and Wei Yihuan for this not to be missed production of power and joy, The Kid.  

 

 

 

Philippe Bizot is the world's premiere mime artist and the last interpreter of the traditional French white-face mime, or, as it is sometimes called, silent drama.

At the age of 53 Bizot won a gold medal in the Chilean International Pantomime Festival for his work, Thirty Years of the Silent World. At the age of 58 he went on a sold-out global tour with a new mime creation, Forty Years of the Silent World. Traveling for nearly half a century, Bizotz has worked as a director, actor, and writer with mime masters and young artists around the world. Along with dozen of original pieces, Bizot has also turned numerous characters from films, novels and plays into mime performance pieces such as The Marquis, The Art of The Fugue and The Road to Happiness to name only a few. He has been described as a lonely and cautious poet of movement who while working frequently all over the world, often needs time to retreat into his own silence near the sea, or mountains in France where he finds both the inspiration and sustained power to create new works. 

In1984, Bizot, at the age of 30, came to China for the first time, knowing in his heart, even then, that someday China would be a second artistic home for him. Having performed dozens of times over the years in Beijing, this year, in 2024, at the age of 71, Bizot begins his first national tour in China with his new work’s, The Kid and Silence. 

 

Summer is native Chinese Actress, Director, Writer and Producer. In America she received an MFA in classical acting from perhaps Americas finest Shakespearean company, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C. Summer also received a PhD in Acting and Directing from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Such multi-national theatre education has allowed her to act professionally on stages in America as well as in China where she frequently performs in Chinese as well as in English.

 

Summer has performed in classical, contemporary and experimental theatre, and in both comedies and dramas. She is also currently touring a mime show, THE KID, performing along side, Philippe Bizot, the most acclaimed mime artist in the world. Summer’s thorough, long-term training as a dancer when combined with her singing, and her acting prowess have allowed her to perform several substantial roles in Chinese language incarnations of Western musicals including, most recently, Cäcilia Weber, in MOZART L’Opera Rock and Violet in LES CHORISTES. Summer was also seen as Christmas Eve in the Tony Award winning, AVENUE Q, and the female lead, Rosemary, in the Pulitzer Prize winning, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING.