Charade parade

Charades is a family game which has been popular for generations. One of the reasons for its evergreen success is that this is a game you can play anywhere at any time. All you need is imagination and a sense of fun.

What game can be played in all seasons, indoors and out, with large or small groups of people, and be just as much fun for adults as for children? The answer to this riddle is a game of riddles: charades.

Charade is a French word meaning a game of riddles in which each syllable of a word — and finally the word itself — has to be guessed. This is a very old game which has been played by generations and over the years lots of variations have evolved.

Word charades
This version of charades is probably the nearest to the original. You don't need a dictionary or a particularly wide vocabulary to be able to play — just a group of people eager to have some fun.

Split up into small teams of three or four players in each, and draw lots for which team begins. First team to take the stage will need to make their preparations in secret out of earshot of the others. These preparations involve choosing a word — preferably with more than one syllable, for example: PANTOMIME — and working out how they can mime an interpretation of the sound of each syllable and, finally, the meaning of the word itself.

When the team is ready to begin their show, their leader goes ahead to warn the other teams. From now on, none of the actors can say a word... everything must be done in mime.

The leader indicates on his hands how many syllables the word they have chosen consists of, and which syllable is to be acted first.

If we take as an example the word we had suggested, PANTOMIME, this would break into three syllables-PAN, TO and MIME.

An obvious interpretation for PAN is one of the actors to pretend to be the god Pan, playing his long pipes while his fellows dance around him. Alternatively, the actors could portray a kitchen scene with Mother serving food from a pan.

While this charade is going on, the spectators from the other teams are trying to guess what this syllable is — and shouting out their guesses. The actors, however, remain silent unless somebody comes up with the right word in which case they must acknowledge it. Each scene should have a prearranged time limit; say five minutes, before the actors retire to prepare for the next syllable.

In our word, the second syllable is TO, which for the purpose of the game becomes TOE since that is how it sounds. The third syllable would be MIME.

And, finally, the last piece of acting is for the players to put across a clear meaning of the whole word PANTOMIME.

By the time the game reaches this stage, it's to be hoped that the teams doing the guessing know at least two of the three syllables!

Whoever guesses the word, wins a point for his or her team, and the right for that team to take over acting. If nobody guesses the word, the actors reveal their secret and they win two points for their team and the right to have another go on the stage.

More word charades
There are many variations of the basic theme as described above. For instance, instead of acting out syllables within one word, you could agree to choose double barreled words like bee-keeper, busy Lizzy, home-made, beer-barrel and so on. The principle remains the same — you act out each word separately and then the meaning of the two together.

Another idea is to set a basic theme, which all the words have to relate to. For example: geography, or politics, or names of stage plays or films.

And then there is the whole world of proverbs and sayings... pride goes before a fall; he laughs well who laughs last; a stitch in time saves nine; letting the cat out of the bag; every dog has his day; you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and so on. Here, it would take up far too much time to mime every single word so you must decide beforehand you are going to split the phrase. If we take the saying: You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear — this would split nicely into three parts: You can't make/a silk purse/ out of a sow's ear. You could mime each of these separately, before giving an interpretation of the whole phrase.

"What do I do?"
If there are only a few of you playing, choose subjects for your charades that can be acted by one person, with everyone else doing the guessing.

An excellent variation is to make the rest of the team guess what job you do from the motions you make. Obviously, the more unusual the profession you have chosen for yourself — lion tamer, director of a flea circus, oceanographer, are a few examples — the more fun everyone will have guessing... and you acting!

"Who am I?"
Along the same lines as making the others guess your profession, single actors can have fun making their fellows guess their identity. You must give some clues — such as an indication as to whether the character you are portraying is alive today and whether it is male or female. The best way to do this is to allow each member of the audience to ask three general questions to which you can nod yes or no — before the mime begins.

Historical characters are fun to portray: Nelson, with a coat sleeve dangling for his missing arm and a patch over his blind eye; Napoleon in the classic General's stance, one hand behind his back and the other tucked in his waistcoat, and so on.

Then there are the politicians: Winston Churchill with an enormous (imitation) cigar; Garibaldi with a red shirt, and General de Gaulle with a built-up nose. And the stars of stage, screen and television.

Shadow games
All you need to make these fascinating shadows is a light shining against a wall and your hands. When you have mastered those shown here, make up some of your own characters.

Fairy tale charades
These are also enhanced by the use of some simple props, and it's amazing what colored paper or silver foil, sticky tape and scissors can help you conjure up.

There are plenty of fairy tales to illustrate: Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, the Princess and the Pea, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Apart from the traditional children's fairy tales, there are modern day favorites too;   Oliver, The Wind in the Willows, Water ship down and so on.

But with all the props you bring on, don't lose sight of the fact that the miming and acting are the most important aspects of charades!

Shadow play charades
By mixing together charades and shadow games, you get an exciting new dimension... Rig up a large sheet (two if you have a lot of actors) with two 60 watt lamps each directed on to the sheet from behind. The brighter that the lamp is the clearer the shadows on the sheet will be. Also, the nearer the actors stand to the sheet, the clearer the image that they are projecting will be. The actors move around in the space between the light and the sheet, while the audiences are on the other side of the sheet and only see the shadows.

You can interpret any of the charades we have already described through this medium. And you now have the advantage that a simple prop can double for many things — a feather can become a cat's tail, the handle of a spoon a dagger and all sorts of things.

It takes a bit of practice before you know what actions to make from behind to cast a certain shadow on the screen. So do some rehearsing. If there is a special occasion coming up — such as a birthday party — you could devise a play to act as the cabaret.

Another variation on this kind of charades is to rig up a puppet theatre, with cutout cardboard characters along the lines of Punch and Judy. Work out in advance the exact distance to set the theatre facade and the puppets between the light and the sheet to project the clearest shadows. You can be sure that your friends will enjoy this show.