Masks in ancient theatre
In ancient Greek and Roman theatre, the theatre mask was a tool that allowed actors to assume a character that conveyed extraordinary emotion. Masks were characterised by large and eccentric features that allowed audiences of thousands to read the characters’ emotions instantly. This visual hyperbole ensured that the context of the performance was easy to follow, and the different types of characters were easily recognizable. Because the mask made the face appear mostly unchanging, the actors seemed to rely heavily on movement and gesture to convey the storyline, as Aristotle wrote in Poetics. Like a mime today, facial expressions needed to be highly recognizable so that the audience could follow the gesture-guided storyline. Some variation in facial expression may have been achieved by different lighting effects, where shadows cast upon the mask made the face distort and change.
Evidence does suggest that ancient theatre masks had different, distinct features depending on the character or genre of the performance. For example, comedy masks usually feature a large, upturned smile, mischievously furrowed eyebrows, and bizarre face shapes including protruding foreheads. Whereas tragedy masks feature an anguished downturned mouth, raised eyebrows and wrinkled foreheads. The characters also varied depending on the genre – slaves are a commonly depicted character in comedy, as well as satyric characters and young men who fall in love. There were two genres of comedy, new and old. Old comedy tended to poke fun at politics and world issues, whereas new comedy was influenced by the Roman version of comedy, which consisted of romantic comedies and domestic jokes. Tragedy tended to focus on more dramatic situations such as unease between men and the gods, abuse of power and tragic love stories. Each of these called for different characters, and different masks.