Faceless
Park Theatre, London

“AMERICA wants blood,” proclaims Federal Prosecutor Scott Bader in Faceless. The blood it's after is that of the supposedly studious Susie Glenn who's been seduced into travelling to Syria to join Isis by her virtual boyfriend.

“How 2015,” I hear you say, and it's true that it seems a long time ago that Isis teenage recruits were dominating the headlines. Luckily, Selina Fillinger's debut play has enough depth to keep it on track in 2018, but it’s not without some major flaws.

Largely a courtroom drama, the five-hander is undoubtedly at its best when it's on legal terrain. The relationship between the slippery misogynist Bader (Matt Mella) and his chosen “face of the prosecution” Claire Fathi (Paige Round, pictured) entices. Harvard-educated, hijab-wearing and of French-Iranian heritage, Fathi is razor-sharp and easily the most well-rounded character in the show.

Their ferociously paced confrontations on the nature of the US justice system, the heated political and religious climate and its professional manifestations are as fascinating as they are funny.

In contrast, the mirroring relationship between the muddled 18-year-old Glenn and her defence lawyer shares very little of that provocative detail. Mark Arenberg (Sam Thorpe-Spinks) is every bit the stereotyped New York Jewish lawyer and, as he tries to bend Susie to his will, the scenes struggle to engage.

That's largely down to the fact that Fillinger just hasn’t fleshed out Glenn’s character enough. Despite having lost her mother in tragic circumstances, it is very difficult to believe that this supposedly straight-A student is naive enough to travel to Syria to meet her Isis-fighter husband, with whom she has only shared keyboard conversations.

The exchanges between Glenn and boyfriend “Reza” — who may be faceless but has a thick generic Arab accent— are simply too shallow to convince. And the conversations between her and her distant father are at times toe-curling in their inauthenticity.

With slide projections forming the only backdrop, it’s purely down to the strong performances of the cast that Prav MJ’s production manages to hold the audience through its weaker sections to provide a thought-provoking evening.

Runs until May 12, box office: parktheatre.co.uk