That Face at Redtwist Theatre | Theater review

Entering Redtwist’s compact space, there’s a sense of intrusion. Audience seating three-quarters ’round the bedroom set leaves nowhere to hide—not that Stenham’s story of familial manipulation and codependence needs much help ratcheting up the intensity. In fact, the young Brit playwright puts such unrelenting focus on the situation’s disturbing nature that she’s unable to establish an emotional core. Strong performances drive Colucci’s production but can’t make up for what isn’t written.

When a boarding-school hazing incident goes awry, Mia (Gray), in danger of expulsion, returns home. That is, she stops by the flat occupied by her mother, Martha (Grandt), and barely-older brother, Henry (Vidal), to pick up a few things, thereby “interrupting” mother-son time. The thing is, it’s always mother-son time. More than a year after dropping out of high school to take care of his alcoholic, attention-desperate mother, Henry is still, futilely, trying to fill the void left by his remarried, expatriated father (Pond). Unable to escape her emotional grasp, Henry’s acquiescence to her demands leaves the two in a seemingly never-ending, often melodramatic cycle of enabling and destruction.

Though she’s reminiscent of another theatrical Martha, it’s immediately clear that this Martha’s off the deep end; though Grandt’s portrayal is captivating, it’s hard to care about her. The damage she inflicts, both intentionally and collaterally, is more frustrating than upsetting. Grandt, Vidal and Gray all deliver heartfelt performances, while Christopher Kriz’s soundtrack is surprisingly satisfying, but the experience is incomplete.