Review: Lynn Faces
Laura Horton's play charms with its myriad idiosyncrasies
Lynn Faces | Photo by Flavia F-C
The Very Best of the Edinburgh Festivals 2024
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Published 13 Aug 2024
Channelling the rarely combined spirits of punk and Alan Partridge, Laura Horton's second Edinburgh Fringe play, Lynn Faces, is a fun, impossible to resist response to domestic abuse that charms with its myriad idiosyncrasies. Inspired by Horton's long-running identification with Lynn Benfield, Partridge's long-suffering assistant, and the challenge that she undertook to photograph people pulling Lynn's iconic grimace, the project led her to a relationship that would ultimately prove toxic.
Appearing in a supporting role, Horton transplants aspects of this experience onto Leah (Madeleine MacMahon), who, approaching 40 and in a spirit of newfound emancipation, has formed punk band the Lynn Faces, caterwauling three-minute blasts of feminist power and overt defiance at her ex from behind Lynn Benfield face masks. Despite some tension in the group about the professionalism and artistic integrity of their undertaking, frank keyboardist Ali (Peyvand Sadeghian), ditzy percussionist Shona (Holly Kavanagh) and their enigmatic, often absent drummer (Horton) rally round their spiralling frontwoman as she regresses, striving to pull her back from the brink.
If the narrative unfolds a little too predictably and reflectively for its punk inspiration, songs such as 'Lady Shapes' and 'Sex Fingers' find the sweet spot of being raw and assertive, but also funny and lyrically memorable. And they're performed with comic panache, with MacMahon's anguished portrayal of someone struggling to express themselves creatively after a deep confidence slam particularly well observed and affecting.