That Face - Orange Tree Theatre

[tmesis]

This is highly recommended - what an amazing play, even more remarkable when you know that this was written by Stenham when she was only 19.
I didn’t see the original production but I can’t imagine it was better than tonight’s cast who were absolutely brilliant, amazingly so for a first preview.
The whole action takes place on (mainly) and around, a bed and is thrillingly effective in the small theatre space.
The audience were mesmerised throughout - one of the best things I’ve seen at OTT and one of the best things I’ve seen all year.

[midge]

I agree. Such an intense and raw show. The young cast were terrific and held their own against the likes of Niamh Cusack. The OT felt like the perfect place for such a suffocating, emotional piece

[Dave B]

Ooh fab, I am going this week.

[Steve]

Saw the matinee and LOVED it. A dysfunctional family drama that never lets up. Niamh Cusack's sheer intensity in such a small space makes this.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Polly Stenham had evidently been reading and watching classics like "A Streetcar named Desire" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" when she wrote this, but for me, if you wanted to write a 90 minute perfect prequel to Hitchcock's "Psycho," you couldn't do any better than this. If Psycho was set in England, and nobody actually murders anyone, that is lol.

Cos, omg, there is something so wrong about the way Niamh Cusack's Martha (aka Mrs. Bates) treats her son, Kasper Hilton-Hille's Henry (our putative Norman Bates). At one point, the way she relates to him practically made an open-mouthed woman, opposite me in the super-intimate Orange Tree Theatre, faint, lol, and at another, her behaviour is so toxic that he has to wear her dress (oh dearie me).

But this is a family affair, and Martha's daughter, Mia, a confounding yet compelling Ruby Stokes, and Martha's ex-husband, Hugh, pragmatic but out-of-his-depth as portrayed by an excellent Dominic Mafham, do their best to avoid getting sucked too deeply into the Martha vortex.

There is another character, Izzy (Sarita Gabony, convincingly staking her claim on any part in an all-female version of "Posh"), who belongs to a boarding school "family" with Mia, which is depicted as almost as awful as Martha's family.

Can Mia escape the influence of either or both of her two awful families? Are Martha and/or Henry doomed?

The play is never less than rivetting in posing these questions, and it is Niamh Cusack's portrayal of a woman who may be mentally ill, may have a personality disorder, may be a product of nurture (or nature), that is the dynamic unstable electric enigma of making this drama hold.

4 and a half stars from me.

[Dave B]

I saw this on Monday evening. Intense is the word. Big fan of Niamh Cusack but the younger cast more than held their own with Kasper Hilton-Hille really shining as the play goes on.

Fullest I have seen OT in a while. Upstairs open and every seat taken up and down.

[cavocado]

I only booked this for Niamh Cusack, having not particularly liked other Polly Stenham plays I've seen (I didn't see the original production of this). But I thought this was excellent all round, and a great choice for such an intimate venue. Cusack was superb as expected, but, as others have said, the rest of the cast more than hold their own.

I like Steve 's idea of this as a prequel to Psycho!

[jr]

Saw it last Thursday. It wasn't for me. I am not sure how it worked when it first opened, but it has be done over and over again in different combinations of abusers/abused. Too much shouting specially towards the end. I liked the acting (mostly) amd the direction was good, great transitions and good pace. Still my concentration was lost at times and it is a short play, not a good sign.

[showgirl]

I saw the matinee yesterday and couldn't recall anything from the original production, which I did see but which after all was 16 years ago now. Shame I have no idea what impression it made on me then as I'm with jr in admiring much of it but not the writing itself and how overwrought it all was. As one reviewer said, it reaches such a pitch, so early on that there's nowhere for it to go afterwards and well before the end, I was wondering what time it was and feeling less disappointed than I had been about having to rush off and missing the post-show discussion. In fairness I should allow for the fact that a close family member suffered from a mental health issue for years (and still does), yet repeatedly refused or abandoned treatment and that I tired of the daily chaos, hysteria and impact on everyone else. So I'm hardly impartial and in some ways, even at this remove, it was too close to home. Surprised to see some school parties; it is a set text now, does anyone know?

[Jan]

Oct 6, 2023 3:31:11 GMT showgirl said:

 Surprised to see some school parties; it is a set text now, does anyone know?

At the new season launch yesterday Tom Littler said that he too had been surprised to see school parties there - he'd programmed it without knowing that it was indeed a set text this year. 

[lonlad]

A university group was there when I saw it, and they all seemed to love it (as for the most part did I). Much more visceral and less reined-in than the original Court production, and Kasper Hilton-Hille is a knockout, as one might expect given his parentage.

[joem]

I hadn't done any homework on this so chose it primarily on the strength of Niamh Cusack and my favourite sushi haunt, next to the Orange Tree Theatre.

I found an Ibsenesque play for our times with a very powerful performance from Ms Cusack and a very strong foil in Kasper Hilton-Hille as her son. I have to say it felt a little out of place amongst the Orange Tree audience profile but, to the fair, it was very well received indeed. As it should have been.