| Share page |
|
Impromptu Games 71 |
||
|
upon the right-hand, or opposite neighbour, the person whom they spoke to last, or their host or hostess.
The fun is increased if the company is arranged so that the questioner interrogates a lady and gentleman alternately.
DUMB ORATOR
This game is "as old as the hills," but its humour is of such subtle flavour that it rarely fails to elicit the most spontaneous mirth. It belongs to the class of things that are so old as to be new to the present generation.
One person recites a poem, the more familiar the better, provided it be dramatic and suggestive of impassioned gesture. His hands are tied behind his back and he seats himself in the lap of another person, who slips his arms under those of the orator—thus supplying him with substitutes for his own pinioned ones, with which substitutes all the gestures are made. A cloak is necessary to hide the dual personality. It is clasped about the orator's neck, and covers the head and person of the gesticulaton.
Some familiar poem should be recited very seriously, while the one who makes the gestures taxes his ingenuity to go as far astray from what would be appropriate as possible. Hamlet's Soliloquy has been a successful choice.
At the words, "take arms against a sea of troubles," the orator's arms are raised in threatening attitude with clenched fists, suggestive of a prize-fight. When the
speaker says—"to die, to sleep-----" he is interrupted
by a loud snore. At the "pangs of despised love," his hands are clasped to his heart and a large bandanna handkerchief applied to his eyes—and nose. At the "spur": that patient merit of the unworthy takes," his |
||