Commentary from audience member.
You’ve probably never heard of prosopagnosia or faceblindness. I hadn’t. When Anna told us the subject of her play, I really worried that with the seriousness of this condition, no one would be interested. It’s an unfamiliar problem with hard to imagine symptoms. I thought, couldn’t she write about a familiar disease like diabetes or drug addiction or AIDS? Or skip disorders entirely and write about love or politics?

Then, last May I got to see Solo Face (then a one-woman piece) and I realized that as I learned about prosopagnosia, I also understood better the universally human situation of confronting a problem we don’t understand and coming to terms with it.
This production adds an entry on the page of mystifying but very real disorders. As you watch you may remember your own illnesses or someone else’s—which no one could explain. You may remember the fear of admitting a problem you thought people might laugh at or dismiss. Think about the despair of confronting an apparently insurmountable obstacle—or incurable disease. The frustration of deflecting advice from people who don’t understand. And the partial or total ignorance of so-called experts.

As a disabilities service officer at a college, I meet a lot of people whose disabilities are invisible, who’ve thought they were dumb or crazy, who aren’t sure of their worth as people because of things they can’t do, can’t learn, can’t cope with. When I watch Sarah, I think of those students. And I hope for them the epiphany she experiences as she reaches the point of admitting, “This is what I’m not” and the glorious moment beyond that when she can take pride that “this is what I am.”

My sincere hope is that everyone who watches Solo Face will not only enjoy the haunting melodies and experimental staging but will really attend to the progress of a young woman whose distress becomes recognition and eventually acceptance. Listen hard as her words convey the depth of her insight. Then, take a little piece of Sarah into the world with you in the form of greater compassion and a more open acceptance of—and celebration of—difference.

Thanks. Enjoy. Virginia B. DeMers (Mother & Friend)