Play for study: Two Faces

Two Faces by Manon Steffan Ros is a poignant play which focuses on issues surrounding online relationships and what we choose to reveal about ourselves to others, virtually or otherwise.

Context and synopsis

Two Faces was first published in 2016 and takes a contemporary setting. Ros's plot centres on the budding online relationship between teenagers, Elen and Sam, alongside Elen's mum, Mai, who is also venturing into internet dating. As the play unfolds, it becomes clear not all is quite as it seems. Sam's dialogue is carefully laced with hints building to a revelation in the final scene: Sam is not a 17-year old boy, but Mai's (online) love interest, a middle-aged married man named Ellis. At the end of the play, Ros leaves us with the haunting image of an unsuspecting Elen going to meet the man she thinks is Sam for the first time.

Themes

As the title suggests, key themes in the play revolve around identity, self-image and disguise. All the central characters comment on their appearance and wanting to alter it, or confess their anxieties about showing who they really are. Masks, make-up, screens, selfies and filters are continually mentioned; a good activity could be to get students to see how many references to identity they can find in the text and then contemplate how these could be amplified to an audience through design. There are plenty of opportunities to discuss e-safety and how, through characters like Mai and Ellis, this affects people of all ages.

Staging

As Two Faces was written for WJEC's GCSE Drama exam, there have been few performances. Adhoc Education Training produced a short tour in 2019 and photos on their website provide useful illustrations of key moments. A proscenium arch seems the most obvious staging type to choose for the play, as there are many instances where the actors directly address the audience. Nevertheless, characters also often exit through the audience, notably signifying when events transition from the real-world to a virtual one, so other stage types are worthy of consideration.

Students will also need to decide how to present moments where characters are talking online. Incidentally, this makes Two Faces an excellent text to explore proxemics, while accounting for social distancing; the physical gap representing the characters’ different locations and their distancing from their authentic selves. The use of projection could also be helpful, perhaps something reminiscent of staging used for the chatroom scene in Marber's Closer, where dialogue appeared on the backdrop as the characters ‘typed’ responses to each other.

Style

As WJEC suggest in their guide, several features of the play, including its didactic nature, follow traditions of Theatre in Education. Many nuances in the text invite alternative styles to be researched with students though, whether they are writing about rehearsal techniques or applying them practically. For instance, in scene 1 the series of photos described by both Elen and Sam could be explored using physical theatre techniques or tableau to fuel discourse around different perspectives on self-image. Additionally, drawing out the flirtatious comedy in early dialogue between Elen and Sam using units and objectives (to establish character motivations) could make the impending exposé of Sam-as-Ellis even more sinister. Finally, the end of the play leaves Elen (and Mai's) fate unanswered; given the gravitas of the issues the play delves into, exercises from Boal (2002) and forum theatre could be a useful way for students to reflect on these.

As Two Faces is written for four actors, it invites exploration of multi-role playing, characterisation and how symbolic props or costume could be used to identify the different characters. Another stylistic quirk is that Sam and Ellis are narratively the same person, but they are played by different actors. To write about how this could be staged, students could experiment playing Sam and Ellis embodying similar gestures. Again, exercises from Boal (2002) such as Columbian Hypnosis or an extended activity like The Mirrors Sequence could help students refine ideas for exam questions on rehearsal techniques and performance.

Overall, Two Faces' narrative and stylistic content are superbly pitched for KS4 students. It is a refreshing new play for GCSE, but would equally make an excellent addition to a Drama department bookshelf for general study or performance.

Useful links
www.adhocet.co.uk
www.nspc.org.uk
http://resource.download.wjec.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/vtc/2015-16/15-16_45/eng/Two%20Faces_eng.pdf

Useful books for rehearsal techniques
Boal, A. (2002) Games for actors and non-actors. Routledge
Graham, S., & Hoggett, S. (2014) The Frantic Assembly book of devising theatre. Routledge
Marber, P. (1997). Closer. Methuen – See scene 3. N.B. Closer is a useful reference for teachers, but the content is not suitable for a KS4 audience.