‘This claustrophobic confrontation between a mother and social worker has a few too many twists to be believable but is most compelling when it forces the audience to sit with its moral ambiguity.’
Anne’s (Clodagh Mooney Duggan) child, Max, has an unexplained bruise on his ear. Max doesn’t remember how he got it, and the doctor has a legal duty to report the injury. So a social worker, Heggarty (Patrick McBrearty), turns up at Anne’s flat armed with some questions and a video camera. Good With Faces is a taut interrogation, asking questions about power, parenting and whether a mother really knows best.
Taking place over a single evening, the play creates a claustrophobic atmosphere as Anne sits isolated on her sofa, looking down the barrel of a camera. The performances are impressive: Anne is understandably defensive, flustered, and scared of saying the wrong thing; Heggarty is subtly judgemental, and can’t always hide it. It transpires that the bruise on Max’s ear is a red flag because it fits into a pattern of events – Heggarty has already spoken with his schoolteacher. This turns Good With Faces into a morality play: what role should privacy play when investigating harm to a child? And how much sympathy should we extend to a parent under suspicion? It’s a textured dynamic that is quietly gripping.
What prevents Good with Faces becoming an instant classic are its closing scenes, which reveal about three twists too many. A script that was happier to sit with its intense questioning and moral ambiguity, allowing the audience to pick a side and find out if they were right, would be much more compelling. As it is, the final ten minutes descend into soap opera, cheapening what could have been a single, devastating reveal.
This doesn’t detract from the raw human intimacy of the first 80% of the show, and for this reason Good with Faces is a production worth seeing. Particularly worthwhile for anyone interested in the responsibility faced by social workers, and how far society should go to protect a child. It is an intense, impactful finale; just perhaps not a necessary one.
Show Listing: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/good-with-faces
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Venue: Old Lab, Summerhall
Dates: Aug 6th–31st
Time: 16:20 (60 mins)
Ticket prices: £10
Fringe box office: 0131 226 0000 / www.edfringe.com