Mime in Skins Seated at Right, Looking at Soldiers

A mime stands in the center of a half-circle of soldiers. She motions unbuttoning her blouse, then pretends to remove it. She moves her hands across the zipper of her pants, then motions her legs up like she’s stepping out of them. The soldiers hoot and holler.

She saunters up to one of the male soldiers. The mime straddles the soldier. He blushes. The rest of the soldiers continue to holler in excitement. She puts her arms around the man, pretending to undress him. The hollering is unbearably loud.

She steps away, puts her hand on her chin, and stares.

The men are yelling loudly now. Their faces are red.

She closes the distance between the soldier again. With her hands, she motions grabbing a knife from an imaginary belt. She pretends to slit the man’s throat, then slice downward, halving him like a piece of meat. She does the same to the legs and arms. She then pinches her fingers around the soldier’s shoulder and pulls down, like she’s peeling off the plastic wrapping from a new window. She pretends to pull all the skin off this way, from the shoulders down the feet. With the imaginary skin in hand, she shakes it out like a rug.

She holds her hands up, like she’s inspecting the skin. The men are silent.

She bends over, lifts her leg, and pretends to climb into the soldier’s skin. First the right leg, then the left. She pulls up the skin, like she’s putting on a wet suit.

The mime moves to the right of the soldiers, then bends her knees as though she’s sitting. Sitting, wearing the skin of the soldier.

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