Massive spoilers will be in the comments. I'll be gradually adding to this over the next while, as I get spare moments to write. Hopefully, other folks who've been will also comment!
The white masks for the audience members was a brilliant and powerful mechanic. On a simple, practical level, it made it clear who was audience, who actors. On a primal level, by anonymizing the audience members, it freed us to do things we wouldn't normally do, and empowered our voyeurism.
On a fictional level, it turned us into ghosts, haunting the castle (and the actors). I've never been a ghost before, and it was a very strange sensation! Like ghosts, we desperately wanted to interact with the world of the 'living', but were never quite able to communicate.
At first, it seemed that none of the characters could see us -- but then sometimes they did. Characters who were dead could see us, and sometimes those who were mad (almost everyone spent some time in at least one of those states). The witches could always see us, but didn't think we were important (though they sometimes toyed with us). The bartender could see us, but seemed somewhat annoyed -- I guess he doesn't get a lot of business in his bar, but much of what he does get is dead people.
On rare occurrences, an actor would actually remove an audience member's mask...
The mask thing is great (minus the discomfort to my glasses). I think the anonymizing is the most important part -- it made me feel a lot more like, well, a player viewing a game through a screen and interacting with it. I think it really helped define the magic circle. I didn't shy away from looking at scenes that might have made me uncomfortable otherwise.
Speaking of uncomfortable, did you see the orgy scene?
I didn't feel like the witches thought we were unimportant. I had two long, almost unnervingly intimate encounters with the same witch. During those encounters I felt important too her -- not as important as, say, Banquo... but important.
The masks get hot or irritating for some people and by the end of the evening there were a lot of folks with their masks pushed up to their foreheads, revealing their faces. This never failed to piss me off.
On rare occurrences, an actor would actually remove an audience member's mask...
Interesting! I never saw that.
The only mask interaction I saw was when some guy was standing around in "scene space" with his mask on the top of his head, completely oblivious to the Black Mask beckoning him to "audience space". The actor slapped the mask down over his face and shoved him toward us. The whole interaction was quick and done with a pique that was not out of character.
I don't think anyone else is meant to see it. A few of my friends from work were (individually, at separate times), grabbed by a woman (probably a witch?) and dragged off into a private space with a locked door. The witch would then remove their mask, and, at extremely intimate range, tell the person a creepy fairy tale. All the while, holding onto the person's arms and making them act out the actions of the story. I wish that had happened to me!
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On a fictional level, it turned us into ghosts, haunting the castle (and the actors). I've never been a ghost before, and it was a very strange sensation! Like ghosts, we desperately wanted to interact with the world of the 'living', but were never quite able to communicate.
At first, it seemed that none of the characters could see us -- but then sometimes they did. Characters who were dead could see us, and sometimes those who were mad (almost everyone spent some time in at least one of those states). The witches could always see us, but didn't think we were important (though they sometimes toyed with us). The bartender could see us, but seemed somewhat annoyed -- I guess he doesn't get a lot of business in his bar, but much of what he does get is dead people.
On rare occurrences, an actor would actually remove an audience member's mask...
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Speaking of uncomfortable, did you see the orgy scene?
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The masks get hot or irritating for some people and by the end of the evening there were a lot of folks with their masks pushed up to their foreheads, revealing their faces. This never failed to piss me off.
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The space seemed warmer on my second visit than on my first. I liked it cooler, myself.
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Interesting! I never saw that.
The only mask interaction I saw was when some guy was standing around in "scene space" with his mask on the top of his head, completely oblivious to the Black Mask beckoning him to "audience space". The actor slapped the mask down over his face and shoved him toward us. The whole interaction was quick and done with a pique that was not out of character.
Removing masks