The history of Charades dates back to 16th century France, when the French made parlour games famous. Petit jeux (little games) are hundreds of mental exercises created for making long evenings fun. Charades en action has become one of the most famous because it involves large or small groups of people who all participate in a hilarious theatrical expression similar to pantomime.
Charades is so entertaining that certain notable evenings have even been recorded in history. In 1654, King Louie XIV ballet danced the clues to a comedy of proverbs in front of his entourage. Queen Catherine the great, in 18th Century Russia, used to make up her own dramatic proverbs to be acted out and solved by her court. The noted poet Alfred de Musset wrote his own proverbs for the game in 1831 and by the mid 19th century Charades became the rage in England.
In America during the 1940s and 1950s enthusiasm for The game, as it was called, grew to be a spirited social event. A variation on the basic principles of the game became the basis for a variety of TV game shows in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Charades has evolved to include not only proverbs and verse but also film titles, names of TV programmes, popular songs, books and catch phrases. |
