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Mummenschanz 50th Anniversary Tour Trailer
Mummenschanz on French TV in 2021

“The group has to be seen — and sometimes touched — to be believed. But if you imagine the Muppets heavily influenced by French surrealism and a few psychotropics, you will have some idea.”

The New York Times

“Mummenschanz: Family Friendly, Inventive, Humorous, and Poignant…One after the other these costume/prop performers bring a seemingly endless stream of clever and sometimes poignant sketches. The black-light sea horse ballet which morphs into lovely swans, or the whimsical wind catching faces, one pink one blue moving toward each other and away in what might be a love story or at least a flirtation. And of course, there are the living slinkies/pipes that toss a balloon back and forth and into the audience.”

LA Dance Chronicle

“Mummenschanz isn’t your white-faced, Marcel Marceau mime. The bizarre masks, costumes and choreography cloak the human form to tell stories that convey messages about our lives.”

NPR

“For all the clever choreography involved here, there is a sense of the contemplation and reflection we associate with stillness, and not just because of the relative lack of sound, which is limited to buzzing evoking an insect and strains of violins that also serve as masks.”

New York Stage Review

MUMMENSCHANZ, the legendary theater troupe that has been dazzling audiences worldwide for over half a century, has announced its farewell North American tour. Adieu! celebrates 55 years of redefining international theater with its unique masked theatrical and acrobatic productions. MUMMENSCHANZ’s poetic, non-verbal performances transcend all language and cultural borders.

Since its founding in Paris in 1972, MUMMENSCHANZ has been a global touchstone for contemporary mask-based theater. Without spoken word, music, or stage design—and using only masks, bodies, and a black background—founders Floriana Frassetto, Andres Bossard, and Bernie Schürch conquered the world without saying a word, creating an entirely new dimension in stage art.

With Andres Bossard’s passing in 1992 and Bernie Schürch’s retirement in 2012, Floriana Frassetto has become the artistic driving force behind MUMMENSCHANZ. Over more than five decades, the company has created more than 100 productions including a landmark three-year run on Broadway, developing an unmistakable style of acting, movement, and mask design. Celebrated on all continents, MUMMENSCHANZ remains a symbol of poetic theater—a unique form of emotional expression that, while entirely wordless, is funny, heartfelt, and profoundly moving.

Adieu! marks the end of this extraordinary journey with a program of greatest hits and highlights from the past 55 years—including the fragile, air-filled Giants, the legendary Pipe Creature, and plenty of other bizarre shapes and iconic objects brought to life by five actors. The program will also include several new and surprising scenes, alongside the distinctive characters that have always set MUMMENSCHANZ apart.

“I want to bring our creative universe, in all its facets, back to the people and thus provide a counterpoint to the noisy world that exists outside the theater,” says founder Floriana Frassetto.

In 2026, MUMMENSCHANZ received the prestigious Grand Culture Prize from the St. Gallen Cultural Foundation in Switzerland. Dr. Felix Wehrle, President of the MUMMENSCHANZ Foundation, remarked: “We are delighted to receive the Major Cultural Award of the Canton of St. Gallen. Awarded only once every four years, it honors Swiss artists who have made a name for themselves on the international stage. For 55 years we have been traveling the world—it is wonderful that our home canton recognizes and values this.”

Adieu! is now booking in North America in 2028. This 90-minute journey through the imagination requires no translation and appeals to audiences of all ages, transporting them into a boundless yet familiar world of comedy, poetry, tenderness, and magic.