Games for Grown-ups

We are used to thinking of good conversation as the glue that holds friendships together, but we shouldn't forget the immense value of playing games, with some of the same spirit of fun and adventure that we once deployed when we were children.

Here is a pack of forty activities to draw us away from static conversation. Among other things, we will build a fort together, dance in surprising ways, deliver funeral orations, practise our acting skills, and play some entertaining (but kindly) pranks. The games are an invitation to cast aside reserve and get in touch with neglected imaginative aspects of ourselves. They are a reminder that friendship doesn't only require talking; it thrives just as much on the lighthearted but significant business of playing together.

Examples

Inanimate Impressions

Imitation, as Aristotle knew, is an activity humans find pleasurable and meaningful. This perhaps explains our delight in impressions. Ordinarily, we impersonate living creatures - friends, celebrities or animals. But this game takes a slightly different approach. Each guest should attempt to impersonate an inanimate object - a grandfather clock, or a dot-matrix printer, or a blender - using sounds and gestures. At the end, the group as a whole should elect a winner who has most uncannily captured the likeness of the object.