Dual role

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A double role is the representation of two characters by the same actor .

Explanation

Richard Mansfield in the dual roles of Jekyll and Hyde

Double roles are possible on stage as well as in film and television. The plot mostly revolves around twins like in Das doppelte Lottchen or around similar looking people like in The Prisoner of Zenda and The Prince and the Begging Boy .

In addition to these literary adaptations, this form of representation occurs mainly in comedies. The actor is given the opportunity to prove his skills in opposing roles. If the embodied figures appear at the same time, special camera settings and special effects are required.

A special form is when an actor portrays a character in different phases of life or shows two different states of being.

reasons

The German Theater Lexicon of 1889 designed three different scenarios for the keyword double role play . On the one hand, “with double characters drawn by the poet, ie those who, in addition to their basic character in order to deceive viewers or fellow players”, have to represent a second, third character according to the poet's specifications. Secondly, due to a lack of personnel, an actor has to embody several people and, finally, out of “love of art pieces” or the need for recognition, “in order to attract attention, actors often play several large roles in one and the same play without need”.

Film actors with dual roles (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerald Bär: The motif of the doppelganger as a split fantasy in literature and in German silent film (=  international research on general and comparative literary studies . Volume 84 ). Rodopi, 2005, ISBN 90-420-1874-7 , ISSN  0929-6999 , p. 179 (718 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).