Performances

Mask theatre offers an alienating, yet familiar reality. Both players and director are permitted to take liberties that would be impossible without masks. This distinguishes mask theatre from other dramatic techniques. The pronounced, evocative masks give masked performances an enormous intensity and energy.

Mask performances are often very physical. The actor has to use his body to bring the mask to life. Every mask requires its own choreography that is used to understand the character. Adapting movement, poise, gesture, and voice to the character allows the mask to come alive.
Watching a mask performance demands a different way of looking from the audience than regular plays do. It offers no opinion, no point of view; it just shows what is there. The spectator is offered a mirror, as it were, from which he has to deduct a lesson himself.