NOT: That Face, Duke of York Theatre, St Martins Lane

I had been looking forward to seeing this play, as it had been much hyped in the press, who gushed about the tight and finely-observed writing of 20 year old Polly Stenham. Well - it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't a seminal work and the kind of mass hysteria which marked the climactic ending was not really my sort of theatre. I did think that the dialogue was occasionally sharp, witty and well-phrased and Ms Stenham clearly has talent which could develop into something. On the other hand, the theatrics were sometimes a bit over-the-top, and the characters were not particularly complex - uniformly nasty and dysfunctional with no redeeming qualities. Compared against any National Theatre Production (for which I pay £10), this play is a NOT.