A FACE: Show looks to highlight the brains over legendary beauty (Fringe Review)

3 Stars

Instructed by Aphrodite to choose a husband, Grecian beauty Helen chooses Menelaus, but is then kidnapped by Paris, Prince of Troy, and taken to Troy. Menelaus’ brother Odysseus launches a thousand ships to bring Helen back, their siege ending with the Trojan horse victory for the Greeks, thus Helen brings ruination to Troy. 

The face in the title refers to the face which according to Homer’s Iliad, launched a thousand ships. This is an attempt to tell the story from Helen’s perspective; her beauty is generally celebrated whilst her brains are not often part of her story. 

Due respect is paid to the source in the writing, though this does lead to a lot of complex emotions being expressed in quite an academic manner – the dialogue does not always flow naturally.  The actors are enthusiastic and skilled, but their performances can lack a little depth. The young actor playing Odysseus was, however, particularly compelling. Direction works well but though at times I was unsure why the curtains were being moved and changed and perhaps some of the scene changes could have been more integrated into the movement. A single set without the changes would have worked well.

Costume was really good though Helen did seem to have more changes than Beyonce, which cast more attention on how she looked than what she said. This slightly undermined the hope that we would see things from Helen’s perspective. One nice touch was that the voiceover added the feeling that the Gods were looking down from above.

A FACE is an earnest production with some strong performances and, given the early morning slot, a fairly large audience – all credit to the cast and company. 

A FACE, at The Space on the Mile, till 15th August