ABSTRACT
The covenant between actors and audience is known down to its last clause; no recital is necessary. A few hours after men on the moon had shown people the weightless plod they needed to move across its surface thousands of children were plodding across their playgrounds in similar manner. Play will change with maturation into games-with-rules or inner-speech as though it has served its developmental turn and can be forgotten. Dramatic behaviour may be a form of play but there are many other non-dramatic forms. A serious narration of a terrifying experience may include dramatic behaviour - replication of the threatening voice of an unknown assailant, his curious gait or posture. A whole literature has sprung up which deals with body language and non-verbal communication, but it does not deal with our capacity to ‘quote’ from these ‘silent languages’ much less with our capacity to use our bodies to imitate machines, things and animals.
