'Havoir of the Visage

Before walking on stage, we are often told to "put on a performance face." This could entail smiling beyond belief, smirking heinously, or moving any other combination of facial muscles to craft an emotion. When in the scene, however, we rarely consider the notion that the character him/herself may be putting on a performance face as well. Often times, actors and audiences alike seem to blindly trust the characters on stage, accepting them for nothing more than face value (no pun intended!). This, however, can be dangerous.

As in the case of Shakespeare's Price Hamlet, a character can easily fool another actor, an ensemble, or even an entire audience. This misunderstanding of identity is a form of irony that can easily trick audience members into trusting untrustworthy characters. For Hamlet, it is often unclear when Hamlet is "acting" mad versus when he is truly losing his wits. To describe this form of theatre-ception, or "acting within an act" (I know, I'm super clever), Shakespeare uses the term "visage."

Hamlet's real self is not the "visage" that he assumes when he is acting mad. I have grown to think of this visage as like one of many masks worn by ancient Greek actors; the actor's true identity is hidden behind the visage, but the audience is only exposed to this "false self." In many ways, the actor is lying to the audience. How, then, should the audience reconcile this theatre-ception? How can the audience still comprehend the actors' true emotions?

In many cases, trust is necessary. It takes a keen eye to decipher theatre-ception, especially when the audience is not expecting it. To add insult to injury, these are paid actors on stage—their job is to be good at acting the part! Therefore, looking beyond the "visage" is sometimes impossible. I try to search for context clues from the language (which is more readily available in Shakespeare's case), body language, and facial expressions. How does the character react to others around him/her? Is he/she clearly "putting on a show"? In the end, to quote my drama director Ms. Robinson, "Trust the process." Trust that the author or director will show you what needs to be shown, and hopefully the visage will unveil itself. The subtleties of Shakespeare—in Hamlet in particular—are often hard to comprehend, so leave the hard word for the actors; sit back and enjoy the show!