Masks are in the news and so they’ve become a topic of conversation. Prior to the Pandemic, when was the last time you wore a mask? I don’t think I’ve worn one since childhood.
We used to get cardboard masks with comics. These were full masks or half masks, covering the top half of the face. It’s hard to remember their design but there was always Guy Fawkes, not so much worn as used to adorn the mannequins that sat upon the top of bonfires, following collecting pennies on street corners. (I should note, we never did this because my mother didn’t allow it on the grounds it was begging.)
I remember animal masks and characters from comics, hard to be certain, maybe Dennis the Menace. Maybe Batman. Do children still wear masks given away with comics? Or are they deemed insufficiently sophisticated for the child of today?
And there were characters who wore masks in comics. Superheroes of course, their stories were mostly about defeating villains (masked too) but the other trope was secret identity. Cowboys (the Lone Ranger) and near cowboys (Zorro?) wore those skimpy little masks around the eyes. Fortunately, no-one seemed able to tell who they were even though most of their face was visible.
As I grew older, I discovered comedy theatre based on mistaken identity. The Hungarian Countess in Die Fledermaus, who the audience knows is the protagonist’s wife, “there’s a blemish on my nose, lift the veil and it shows.” Thus illustrating another reason to wear a mask, disfigurement, perhaps most obvious in The Phantom of the Opera.
Or the Countess and Suzanna swap costumes in the final act of The Marriage of Figaro, to confound the philandering Count and incidentally nonplus Figaro, who is usually on top of the various plots developing around him.
Masks in Greek Theatre
Masques on stage and masquerades, perhaps somewhere between stage and event, are always popular. Think of Mardi Gras and Notting Hill Carnival. Many local festivals include masks or painted faces, Morris Dancers and clowns. The latter elides uncomfortably into the Black and White Minstrel Show, which I remember puzzled me as a child. Why were white men not allowed to appear without make-up? At that age, I didn’t get it.
But all have in common costumes and masks that emphasise certain features, music and dance. There are the sinister and celebratory aspects of masks. They are a part of every culture and theatre slides imperceptibly into ritual, spirituality and religion.
We trace the masks way back to Ancient Greek theatre. There the challenge was to be heard. The amphitheatre amplified voices but so did masks, through a special mouthpiece. The actors were never seen and played several parts. It was all in the masks.
The experience must have been more like radio than TV. Today, the papers feature the doings of actors from TV soaps. Not so for actors in The Archers, we know the characters solely through sound and so the actors are not visible. Masked by the medium.
The Romans wrote about Greek Theatre and explained how character was conveyed through sound. The Latin is per sonar. We still use sonar to describe how bats and machines bounce sound off objects and monitor their position.
And that’s where we get the English word “Person”. From masks. Perhaps the person is itself a mask? Psychologists sometimes use the term persona to describe this dimension of our psyche. It appears in religion, Joseph Campbell’s work, The Masks of God for example. Or indeed, the three Persons of the Trinity.
The Enneagram
The Enneagram is one of several personality typologies. There are 9 (ennea is 9 in Greek) personality types or should we say persona?
On a weekend retreat at a Catholic Centre they sat us in 9 groups around a huge hall. We knew our types before the meeting and joined the group for our type. We were given tasks to complete and then compared each group’s approach to the same task.
I remember the first task. Every group took to working on it, the room was alive with vigorous conversation. Except for one small corner. My group sat in stony silence. We all had arms and legs crossed. Not a glimmer of a smile. The men all had beard and glasses. The women wore tweedy clothes, with hair tied back in strict order. I’ve never sat in a more terrifying group – and I was one of them.
Seconds passed.
I was a community development worker and so I thought, if I don’t do something, we’ll never make a start. I spoke …
The group warmed up, some people almost smiled – and after that we were fine and being the type we are, we produced the most thorough work of all the groups because that’s what we do.
I learned why some people find me hard to relate to from that experience. My type wears a mask that says in large unfriendly letters: “Keep Off”. I realise now that everyone, whatever type wears a mask. It’s not too hard to get behind the mask but first impressions do matter.
So, when I wear a mask for the first time in adult life to visit a shop, I wear a mask over a mask – and so do we all!