The Mask and the Face
HY. are impersonations so delightful, so intrinsically enjoyable? I asked myself this after listening to two of Florence Desmond’s brilliant performances. Not only has she an ear like a
cat’s whisker, which enables her to reproduce with astounding accuracy the familiar timbre of persons as diverse as Charles Boyer and Katharine Hepburn, but she adds to this a wild imagination which gave listeners recently the hilarious experience of hearing a retired Indian Army Colonel singing, "I hate to see dat even’ sun go down." Why do we so enjoy these entertainments? Is it because the casual assumption of a famous and distinguished personality gives us an agreeable sense of superiority, the feeling that the quirks and mannerisms for which these people are so highly regarded are only skin deep? Perhaps. But I wonder if it does not hint at something more subtle and profound. In the plays of Terence, the persona was the mask assumed by a character to differentiate him from his fellows. It is personality which separates us; by laughing when it seems to be exposed, do we tacitly admit the existence of a deeper identity which binds us?
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 814, 4 March 1955, Page 10
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196The Mask and the Face New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 814, 4 March 1955, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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