Polly Stenham's strength is in creating convincing characters, more immoral than amoral, and then putting authentic dialogue into their mouths. It has to be said, that her stage alter ego, Mia, gets a relatively easy ride compared to everybody else on show and even at her worst tends to be seen through rose-tinted glasses. The play begins, though, with a scene at Mia's school where the initiation ceremony of a new schoolgirl turns sour because Mia has given the thirteen year-old victim a huge dose of her mother's valium, rendering her totally unconscious and, onc suspects, close to death. If Philip Larkin ever needed a play to embody his most famous line, "They f*** you up, your mum and dad", this is it. They may live continents apart but Lindsay Duncan's Martha, every bit as drunkenly vituperative as Edward Albee's earlier model, and self-centred Hugh (a slimy-smooth Julian Wadham) have jointly left 18-year-old Henry and 15-year-old Mia in a terrible state. Vanessa Kirby stars as Julie in Stenham’s new play for the National. Photograph: Richard Hubert Smith Polly Stenham MBE FRSL (born 16 July 1986) is an English playwright known for her play That Face, which she wrote when she was 19 years old.

Having given up school to look after her, Henry is protective but hardly more than a child in many ways himself and completely unable to handle a self-loathing woman who has already spent time in an asylum.

There are many instances of Pinter Pauses that are shown throughout the play. Some of these pauses are pregnant pauses that cause tension in the room to almost be unbearable. There are also some ellipses pauses in between words that really build the tension between characters that the words are being spoken too. This comment about the play really shows how powerful the use of the elements Pinteresque style is within the play. Then there are some instances where there are long drawn out pauses to give more of a dramatic moment. Tim Smith from The Baltimore Sun had something to say about the tension that was on stage from Center Stage’s performance of That Face, “Josh Tobin taps into Henry’s neuroses with impressive nuance and brings startling intensity to the climactic scenes.” (Smith 2017). A mythology of family pain, spliced with partying and privilege, has arisen around Stenham since then – the double pull that appears as a recurring theme in almost all of her plays. In 2006, a day before That Face was accepted by the Royal Court, her father, Anthony, died suddenly – he had parented Polly and her sister, Daisy, alone after his divorce. Her mother, who was an alcoholic, died when Stenham was 26. But there is also the house in Highgate she has shared with 11 friends, the art gallery she owns in the heart of Camden Town and the expensive education (Wycombe Abbey, then Rugby) that she has talked about with a note of apology. Don't give me that, that...expression. I know you don't get on, but please be nice to her, or if you can't do that, just don't be anything. OK? All hope rests with Mia, a girl who might well return to school, excel in her A-levels and go on to become a professional playwright, possibly even before she leaves university.

On first viewing at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, played in the round in a gloriously grungy setting designed by Mike Britton, the play demonstrated great promise in an atmosphere where both critics and audiences are inclined to be generous. That Face starts out as a kind of transgender remake of Tom Brown's Schooldays updated to the 21st Century. I have a complicated relationship with that. I love clothes, and I’m genuinely interested. I remember I did a shoot for The Sunday Times a while ago for Hotel, and there was a moment when I was in a dress, and I was on the roof of the National and someone was throwing pretend bits of my script at me, so it looked like they were flying around me. And in my head I was like, ‘You’re such a twat.’ Smith, Tim. “’That Face’ at Center Stage Looks at Ultra-Dysfunctional Family.” Baltimoresun.com, 23 Apr. 2017, www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/artsmash/bs-ae- that-face-review-20170421-story.html. Henry. So I can go and know you’re safe. So I can look Dad in the eye when he comes. So I can know that I helped you somehow. Please. This one thing. ( Urgently.) I don’t want you to get sectioned. I won’t be able to visit you. It’ll be like before, remember? I don’t know where they’ll take you. I don’t know if they’ll let you out.That Face (2007) at the Royal Court Theatre then (2008) Duke of York (2009) directed by Jeremy Herrin Stenham was born and raised in London. She attributes her love of theatre to her father as he took her to various shows from a young age, including many at the Royal Court Theatre which would later stage her first play. For five years from the time that he was 13, Henry supported, covered for and humoured this woman. He is so obsessed with keeping her that he gave up his own education and prospects to do so. He also very nearly gives Mum-Martha his body in a final effort to retain her sanity.

Her second play, Tusk Tusk premiered in the downstairs theatre at the Royal Court in March 2009 directed by Jeremy Herrin. [7] I ask her about being a woman in theatre in an era of #MeToo, and if she stands by her words in a 2016 interview – that this is the best time to be one. Yes, she insists, it is, but just as she said then, it does not mean the battle is done. “Pretty much everyone I know has been sexually assaulted, whether that’s a hand up a skirt at a club or rape.” But as far as theatre is concerned, she has been occasionally patronised – nothing more. “But then I’m a director; I’m not in the same vulnerable position as actors.” I think it’s absolutely criminal that there are still huge inequalities. It is the best time ever to be a woman; it’s still not great; and the fact that we’re still going, ‘Oh great, there’s some girls writing’ really pisses me off. All it does is reflect the fact that there’s been this huge difference. The fact that it’s a thing is the thing that’s worrying. It should not be a thing. A popular contemporary dramatist, Polly Stenham (1986-) has become a staple of the London theatrical scene in recent years. Born in London and educated at Wycombe Abbey, a private boarding school, Stenham was raised in an affluent and theatre-loving family. Her plays include That Face (2007) and Hotel (2014). Stenham's characters often live lives of dysfunction and chaos, showcasing common contemporary concerns.Frankie is Vivienne and Robert's daughter. She can be unstable and volatile. Frankie also has a dangerous relationship with alcohol, despite being only fourteen years old. She treats her brother, Ralph, cruelly at times too, manipulating him when she sees fit. This is the second London outing for Polly Stenham‘s impressive 2007 debut That Face. Set in the thoroughly dysfunctional world of an ever more distressed upper middle-class family, where pill-popping and channel-hopping are the methods employed by the parents to deal with the children, we watch as things disintegrate, leading inexorably towards crisis point.

Polly Stenham has said that the starting point for That Face was "to write about a class of people I hadn't often seen represented in the theatre", which suggests that trust-funded, privately educated dropouts are an endangered minority on the English stage. Yet her 2007 debut does indicate that no one has focused more acutely on the hysterical, destructive neuroses of the upper-middle class since Noël Coward. I’m very social. I lived with up to 11 people until I was 28, and I was at boarding school before that. I’ve always lived and operated in large groups, and I’m very close to my friends and my sister. Now I live with my partner, just us, which is lovely. But because my work is so pathologically solo – until rehearsal, and then it becomes lots of fun – I like to be around people when I’m not working. The dream just goes on and on for Polly Stenham. Most people would regard having a play produced professionally when they are 20 as pretty sensational. Miss Stenham went on to win three major awards with That Face and before its West End transfer has even opened, she is adapting it into a feature film. At some swanky, girls' boarding school our female Flashman (Flash-girl?) Izzy is an appropriately cowardly sadist who eventually ends up gibbering after, with help of heroine Mia, she puts a 13 year-old Arthur substitute into intensive care following an initiation rite that goes wrong. The reason That Face is written in a “Realistic” fashion is that the play focuses on things that happen in the real world. In the real world, families deal with divorces all the time and the aftermath that comes with the divorce. Children are usually the ones that tend to suffer the most, and this play showcases the hardships that the children are dealing with, due to their family being broken. Realism is when the playwright is wanting to focus on human behavior and give the audience in a sense a reflection of what they may experience in their respective lives. For example, at the beginning of the play, we see a rebellious teenager, Mia, getting into trouble at her school for drugging a classmate of hers. Now, not everyone will be able to relate exactly to this situation. However, they might be able to relate to the rebellious stage of teenagers, and for them to get into trouble at school. Throughout the play, there are many examples of human behavior that many people relate too. One reviewer named Lucy Avery pointed out how people can see themselves in the play. “However,Stenham also says that she felt the audience at the Royal Court had not seen themselves on the stage in this way -a reminder to us all thatif you get the right audience in front of a story that directly speaks to them, you’ve got the chance at a very successful play.” (Avery 2015).In 2011 Stenham, along with friend Victoria Williams, opened an art gallery, [8] the Cob Studios and Gallery (named after her art collector father) in Camden, London. [9]