Wounds to the Face

Directed by Hugh Hodgart and Liam Brennan

Set and Costume Design Kirsty McCabe

Lighting Designer Andrew Smart

Sound Designer Danielle Flecher-Herd

Assistant Production Manager Francesca Rose

Tuesday 20 May - Saturday 24 May 2008, 7.30pm Friday 23 May 2008, 2.30pm

NEW ATHENAEUM THEATRE

Cast

Michael E. Corrie. ...............Man, Monsieur, Dictator, Greek

Michael Goldsmith. ............Youth, Terrorist, Double, Patriot

Jenny Hulse. ..................Woman, Prisoner, Wife, Prostitute

Fergus Johnston. ..............Youth, Lover, Roue

Emma Lambie. ................Bride, Visitor, Empress, Prostitute, Parasol Woman

Lewis Milsted. ................Surgeon, Emperor

Maria Noebauer. ..............Mother

Matt Randell. .................Youth, Double, Painter, Narcissus

Andrew Root. .................Soldier

Owen Whitelaw. ..............Youth, Figure, Guard, Greek

Technical

Set and Costume Designer Kirsty McCabe

Lighting Designer Andrew Smart

Sound Designer Danielle Flecher-Herd

Assistant Production Manager Francesca Rose

Stage Manager Suzie Goldberg

Deputy Stage Manager Mat McFarlane

Assistant Stage Managers Kieron Johnson & Emma Whoriskey

Technical Stage Manager Emma Hullin

Deputy Technical Stage Manager Laura McNiven

Technical Crew

Vicky Adamczyk

Louise Marr

Calum Willoughby

Production Electrician Ricky Smith

Lighting Operator Douglas Paisley

Sound Operator Kevin Cullen

Electrics Crew

Kelli Del Jarlais

Richard Evans

Anne Hamilton

Sean McKenzie

Senior Scenic Artists Kirsten Hogg & Stephanie Todd

Scenic Artists

Marthe Hoffman

Emilie Velluet Draper

Jennifer Walker

Scenic Assistants

Lyndsey McDonald

Scott McIntosh

Karlene Reid

Avril Scott

Iain Waugh

Senior Carpenter Laura Montgomery

Carpenter Marianne McAra

Construction Assistants

Alasdair Head

Lauren Mackay

Scott McIntosh

Prop Makers

Helen Allingham

Gordon Bavaird

Niall MacGillivray

Christine Orr

Prop Assistants

Ashleigh Blair

Matthew Edmonds

Gary Loughran

Costume Maker Emma Grindlay

Wardrobe Assistants

Benjamin Affleck

Susie Beattie

Richard Evans

Holly Hodgart

Katrina Kelly

Lauren MacKay

Ayden Millar

Avril Scott

AV Consultants Urszula Kocol & Krysty Wilson

Production Stills

Coming Soon

Reviews

The Scotsman

Theatre review: Wounds to the Face

Date: 22 May 2008 By JOYCE McMILLAN WOUNDS TO THE FACE

THE NEW ATHENAEUM THEATRE, GLASGOW

3 stars

WITH storm clouds of controversy and underfunding swirling around Scotland's drama schools, it's good to see the final-year students at the RSAMD testing themselves against the best. Howard Barker is perhaps the most brilliant and least compromising of all living British playwrights; and if his 1995 piece Wounds to the Face is not exactly his weightiest work, it still presents a formidable, disturbing challenge.

Structured in 14 short, episodic scenes, this powerful contemporary text examines the relationship between physical appearance and identity in merciless detail, considering the ruined faces of, among others, a war-wounded soldier, a discontented woman and an old philanderer disfigured by the pox; it also considers the sheer, casual cruelty of youth and beauty. Hugh Hodgart and Liam Brennan's production – in a towering theatre space created on the stage of the New Athenaeum – looks breathtakingly fine, with a spectacular design by Kirsty McCabe (superbly lit by Andrew Smart) that makes magnificent use of giant portrait mirrors, and tall, soaring poster images.

Where the production falters is in its tone. There's far too much conventional "acting" and characterisation, not nearly enough Brechtian dryness and distance, combined with the ruthless focus on the play's themes, made possible by that harder, clearer performance style.

Nonetheless, Jenny Hulse shows terrific promise in a clutch of key female roles and, if this Barker sometimes looks frighteningly like the kind of bourgeois British theatre he hates, it still makes for a fascinating and absorbing evening.