Reflections of Inner Life: Masks and Masked Acting in Ancient Greek Tragedy and Japanese Noh Drama

Abstract

Meanwhile, in the areas of academic and professional theatre, artists and scholars have come to learn a great deal about the subtleties, complexities, and special power of masked acting. One major impetus for this rediscovery has come from the expanding study of theatre forms in Asia, where long and rich traditions of masked acting have survived to the present day. One result of this rediscovery is the re-emergence of the mask in contemporary Western performance. Another significant development is the growing use of the mask as an essential and dynamic tool in actor training schools in America and elsewhere. Yet misconceptions about masks and masked acting are still promulgated in many of the basic scholarly texts about Greek theatre. One misconception which classical scholars have tried to abolish is the nolion that the Greek perfonner's mask and costume were exaggerated and statuesque. The dominant perception of the Greek actor during the first half of this century was of an actor on high platform shoes, with padded costume, elaborate hairdo, and an exaggerated mask contorted with suffering. It is now firmly established that this type of costume emerged after the fifth century B.C. and is more closely associated with the Hellenistic and Roman actor rather than with the classical Greek. However, this conception has been slow in dying and was reinforced in the mind of the public with Tyrone Guthrie's farnous productions of Oedipus Rex and The House of Atreus, which used