This is a show that has everything: mask work (and pretty good mask work at that), discreet incidental music, expressionistic sets, sign language, a narrator who also plays the wind (of change)... It goes on. Brave Faces has been devised for children with special educational needs, to stimulate thought about role-playing and painting yourself into a behavioural corner. Three characters trying to be self-sufficient in their own ways learn through experience that no-one can be an island. It's an acute, winning tapestry of styles and themes, and far from limited to its primary constituency.
Written for City Limits magazine.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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