Composers and their stage works 



WOUNDS TO THE FACE

Howard Barker


Wounds to the Face reveals in a series of interlocking narratives the pains society and its individuals undergo in negotiating the human face. What we present to the world, and what we endure on recognizing this organization of features as indelibly our own, is seen here through the traumas of war wounding, age, political propaganda, desire, deception, and ultimately, plastic surgery. What is it we mean by 'losing face?'And what if it were literal? Barker's philosophical and dramatic method here combine to stimulate outrage and pity at the conditions this mask we call identity imposes on our lives.