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

Assistant Stage Manager Emma Whoriskey

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

NEW ATHENAEUM THEATRE

Production Challenges

Electro-magnet system

The design for this production required 15 banners to drop from overhead an controlled sequences throughout the performance. The TSM and LX department devised a system using electro-magnets controlled using the lighting desk.

See this link for the soloution:

Electro Magnet Drops For 'Wounds to the Face'

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 Matt McFarlane

Assistant Stage Managers Kieron Johnson & Emma Whoriskey

Technical Stage Manager Emma Hullin

Deputy Technical Stage Manager Laura McNiven

Stage Automation Steve Macluskie, Stephen Roe

Technical Crew	Production Electrician	Lighting Operator	Sound Operator
Vicky Adamczyk Louise Marr Calum Willoughby	Ricky Smith	Douglas Paisley	Kevin Cullen
Scenic Artists	Scenic Assistants	Senior Carpenter	Carpenter
Marthe Hoffman Emilie Velluet-Draper Jennifer Walker	Lynsey MacDonald Scott McIntosh Karlene Reid Avril Scott Rachael Bamford Iain Waugh	Laura Montgomery	Marianne McAra
Prop Assistants	Costume Maker	Wardrobe Assistants	AV Consultants
Ashleigh Blair Matthew Edmonds Gary Loughran	Emma Grindlay	Benjamin Affleck Susan Beattie Richard Evans Holly Hodgart Katrina Kelly Lauren Mackay Ayden Millar Avril Scott	Urszula Kocol Krysty Wilson
Electrics Crew	Senior Scenic Artists	Construction Assistants	Prop Makers
Kelli Del Jarlais Richard Evans Anne Hamilton Sean McKenzie	Kirsten Hogg Stephanie Todd	Alasdair Head Lauren Mackay Scott McIntosh	Helen Allingham Gordon Bavaird Niall MacGillivray Christine Orr

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.

Credits

Sean Black, Glasgow School of Art

Citizens Theatre

EX Showhouse Furniture/XS Interiors

Kurt-Hans Goedicke

Philip Haig

Jennifer McBride

Adam McIlwain

Millers Creativity Shop

Ruchill Furniture Project

Tron Theatre

www.victorianvillage.co.uk