Borrowed Silence

Most of us know how to become a slightly different version of ourselves before we have even entered a room. We hear a familiar voice, see who is sitting at the table, and adjust. The confident colleague becomes the anxious son. The patient friend discovers that his patience has limits when someone at home asks a perfectly reasonable question.

I find that ordinary human flexibility fascinating. It helps us belong, work, love and survive awkward family gatherings. It can also become so familiar that we stop noticing what we are doing, or what it costs the people around us.

The Masked series begins with a man whose performance is easy to recognize. Danny Mercer paints his face and makes people laugh without saying a word. His audience knows there is an act. Away from the waterfront, the arrangements are less clear.

A mime seemed a good companion for a story about all the things we communicate while leaving something unsaid. Silence can make room for another person. It can protect something tender. It can also leave someone we love doing the exhausting work of guessing. I wanted to give those possibilities room to sit beside one another.

I wanted laughter here, too. Danny's work depends on the lovely fact that people will willingly believe in an invisible object if it is offered with enough care. There is generosity in that small agreement. Humor can bring strangers together before they have found anything else in common. Sometimes it gives us just enough courage to stay in a difficult conversation.

As you read, you will see Danny move between named roles. These are ways of being with other people, all belonging to the same person. The choices remain his. I hope those shifts feel familiar, even if you have never worn face paint or tried to earn a living with an imaginary suitcase.

I would like you to enjoy his company before deciding what to make of him. You may understand one of his choices and still wish he had chosen differently. That seems a fair way to begin getting to know anyone.

Thank you for stepping into his world. There is room beside the invisible wall.

Stuart Corlett