Trestle Masks -
Trestle Masks are hand made to order and have even appeared on the BRITS awards.
One could argue that all actors are wearing a mask in some form or another as they play characters different from themselves, but what do Trestle find most interesting about using actual masks? Here’s what they said:
"What I find most interesting is that it provokes the audience's imagination. It's very easy for us to go to the theatre and sit there and let things wallow over us.
Theatre is very dominated by the spoken word and the idea of the game of theatre is missing. The idea of you letting go of your rationality and believing in something like a child believes in something for the sheer hell of it isn't there.
But that's what you have to do with a mask. You can't watch a mask and go that's an actor with a mask on because it doesn't work. You have to go 'that's a real person'. It's a sort of a spiritual experience. It's the suspension of disbelief, and for me that's the essence of mask work.
I just feel that there's something vital about them. They are the oldest form of human presentational expression. They've been at the forefront of folk art for the whole of theatre history but I think they need to be discovered for the modern era particularly in Britain."
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