That Face

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At times Mia, played by Felicity Jones, is so well grounded that she seems too good to be true. As Catherine Steadman's Izzy panics over her comatose victim, Mia is totally calm. Later, when family issues boil over, the 16/17 year-old is almost always the calm observer. It begins at a girls’ boarding school, where Mia (Ruby Stokes) and her performatively posh, vaguely sinister friend Izzy (Sarita Gabony) are inflicting a hazing ritual upon their new dorm mate. But a giggling Mia has fed the young girl a massive dose of Prozac that she’s swiped off her mum… as it dawns on Izzy how serious this is, they enter panic mode. Having given up school to look after her, Henry is protective but hardly more than a child in many ways himself and completely unable to handle a self-loathing woman who has already spent time in an asylum. The Orange Tree Theatre does sterling work in commissioning new plays and reviving those that have lapsed into obscurity. No one could say that Polly Stenham’s work as a whole is neglected or unappreciated; but it is fifteen years since her breakthrough play – ‘That Face’ – was received with critical acclaim at the Royal Court, and therefore now quite appropriate to see how it stands up in a fresh production. Regrettably, despite some superb acting, I remain unconvinced. I have a complicated relationship with that. I love clothes, and I’m genuinely interested. I remember I did a shoot for The Sunday Times a while ago for Hotel, and there was a moment when I was in a dress, and I was on the roof of the National and someone was throwing pretend bits of my script at me, so it looked like they were flying around me. And in my head I was like, ‘You’re such a twat.’

It is not just about culture but mental health, too. “Theatre explains things that are hard to articulate,” Shenham says. “Why you would murder your own children, the tragedies, the dark, hidden desires as well as the good things. You forgive humanity, in a way. You see what we can do to each other and understand the imperfections of each other, despite fighting for the world to be a better place.” I ask her about being a woman in theatre in an era of #MeToo, and if she stands by her words in a 2016 interview – that this is the best time to be one. Yes, she insists, it is, but just as she said then, it does not mean the battle is done. “Pretty much everyone I know has been sexually assaulted, whether that’s a hand up a skirt at a club or rape.” But as far as theatre is concerned, she has been occasionally patronised – nothing more. “But then I’m a director; I’m not in the same vulnerable position as actors.”

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It also affects the way women, particularly young women, are seen and asked to behave. You once said: ‘Harold Pinter doesn’t have to worry about this shit.’ How do you feel now? That Face (2007) at the Royal Court Theatre then (2008) Duke of York (2009) directed by Jeremy Herrin By the end, there can be little optimism for a family that has one member about to be sectioned, another who is apparently heading the same way and a third who will return to his comfortable life halfway across the world. This production contains adult themes throughout. There is use of strong and racist language. There are themes of alcoholism, drug misuse, addiction, violence and coercive behaviour.

All hope rests with Mia, a girl who might well return to school, excel in her A-levels and go on to become a professional playwright, possibly even before she leaves university. The play begins, though, with a scene at Mia's school where the initiation ceremony of a new schoolgirl turns sour because Mia has given the thirteen year-old victim a huge dose of her mother's valium, rendering her totally unconscious and, onc suspects, close to death.

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There are many instances of Pinter Pauses that are shown throughout the play. Some of these pauses are pregnant pauses that cause tension in the room to almost be unbearable. There are also some ellipses pauses in between words that really build the tension between characters that the words are being spoken too. This comment about the play really shows how powerful the use of the elements Pinteresque style is within the play. Then there are some instances where there are long drawn out pauses to give more of a dramatic moment. Tim Smith from The Baltimore Sun had something to say about the tension that was on stage from Center Stage’s performance of That Face, “Josh Tobin taps into Henry’s neuroses with impressive nuance and brings startling intensity to the climactic scenes.” (Smith 2017). Jeremy Herrin's direction is as refreshing as the writing. The play flows fluidly with the cast handling scene changes. But some of the characters keep position as if they're fading out of memory as the scene changes takes place. It's a neat and highly effective transition. However, the music is a little on the loud side for my taste, albeit I can see why it needs to jar given the way the characters grate against each other in this topsy-turvy family world. At some swanky, girls' boarding school our female Flashman (Flash-girl?) Izzy is an appropriately cowardly sadist who eventually ends up gibbering after, with help of heroine Mia, she puts a 13 year-old Arthur substitute into intensive care following an initiation rite that goes wrong. That Face is a two- act play written by Polly Stenham. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 26 April 2007, directed by Jeremy Herrin. The play was revived at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in 2008, opening on 1 May. [1] It made its American premiere in May 2010, at the Manhattan Theatre Club, running through until 27 June. [2] Plot [ edit ]