|
Everyone has an alter ego — a public and a private personality.
“Passion,” a play presented by Washington State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance, sets out to show both the masked and unmasked sides of humankind.
“People with nothing to hide don’t wear masks,” said Patrick Harris, WSU student and movement and mask director of the play.
This is meant in a figurative and literal sense, because all but two characters in the play wear actual masks.
“The play is not written with masks,” Harris said. “It’s a concept that the director came up with.”
Harris said that what you can accomplish with a mask is notable.
“Just the slightest tilt of the head makes a huge difference,” Harris said. “Without a mask, head twitches become static and you lose focus on acting.”
The play is about a middle-aged couple who hit a plateau in their marriage. A love triangle forms between husband, wife and a younger woman. But the playwright, Peter Nichols, adds two additional characters (the alter egos of the husband and wife), making the triangle into a twisted pentagon.
The masks show the public side of people, and the two unmasked people are the genuine personalities, the only reality.
“It gives an eerie ‘watching’ feeling, which feeds into the public-private feeling,” Harris said.
Terry Converse, WSU professor of Theatre, is directing the play and said that having both a masked and unmasked version of the two main characters is a highly effective theatrical way of emphasizing the difference between the public and private facets of the characters.
“To admit that our private and public selves are not one and the same is disconcerting at best because it is a realization that we are, in effect, at war with ourselves,” Converse said.
Speaking specifically about the husband’s alter ego character, Converse said, “He is more private. He doesn’t have to wear a mask — he’s more to the core.”
The play is a story about marriage and adultery.
“It’s a psychological reality from both the male and female point of view,” Converse said.
The play focuses on one of the roughest parts of marriage —adultery.
“Fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce,” Converse said. “(This play) is like real life. The problems are out there — look at them.”
This play is more light-hearted than Converse usually takes on, but balancing comedy with seriousness drew him in.
“I like the challenge of taking an out-in-out, not-furry topic and working intently on making it comical,” Converse said.
Taking a topic like adultery and making it comedic might seem risky, but Converse said that it shows a level of life experience and maturity and people will connect with it.
The ending of the play is deliberately unclear, leaving the audience to interpret which self took over.
“There is a struggle between inner and outer self. The ending is in the eye of the beholder,” Converse said.
 Add as favorites (23) | Views: 371
|
