Vamos Theatre-
Vamos theatre is mask company. I was excited to watch a show where the characters had masks on as I’ve never seen anything like that before. I was interested to see how they would quickly change masks on stage to be able to show different emotions. Surely, they would have to change their expressions?
I travelled to London to watch Vamos’s show ‘The Best Thing.’ I was taken back to 1966. I knew this straight away because of the clothes they were wearing. The record players on, eye lashes are curled, and hair was in stylish bobs. The main character is having fun in her bedroom dancing around to music and for the character Susan her life is an adventure waiting to begin. However, her life doesn’t exactly go to plan when she meets a boy. The theatre company draws attention to woman who had to give up their babies in the 60’s because they were unmarried and to young. It wasn’t the cheeriest of things to watch but there was a constant sense of humour as each character runs on stage with their funny look on their face and raises a laugh to the audience. It was such a touching piece to watch and probably the best piece of performance I’ve ever seen.
The masks were never changed! The characters kept the same masks on throughout the piece yet changed their emotions through their physicality and moving their body. The faces on the masks didn’t affect how they were feeling, it was incredible! I also thought facial expression in performance was the best way for an audience to understand how the character was feeling but I was so wrong! The characters made me laugh with happiness and cry with sadness just through their movements and physicality.