Alex Silberbauer’s play, “Wrong Faces”, now on its third successful run, is showing at Theatre Arts on the 9th and 10th of August. The play is set in a bathroom, where two strangers trapped in a small space find an unusual bond and connection. I met Alex and her costar Jason Bailey at Our Local for a coffee, where we chatted theatre a few days before opening night.

Alex, the writer, director and producer of “Wrong Faces”, graduated in Performance and Film studies at CityVarsity in 2023. The first draft of the play was written in 2020 during Alex’s first year at university, and she’s been improving it ever since, editing drafts which look very different from her first scribble session. The show is coincidentally running on the same dates that Silberbauer’s first one woman show, which premiered when she was just 18.

This is Alex’s first time working with another actor on one of her productions, but the chemistry between her and costar/friend Jason Bailey is palpable, and Alex vouches that he has supported her throughout the journey. The last time I saw Jason, he had filled in for another actor, playing the leading role in a play completely unrehearsed. He was responsible for a standing ovation.

Klara: Alex, what is your acting/directing background, and how did it prepare you for where you are today?

Alex: I’ve been acting since I was 3 years old. When I created a one woman show at 18, I realized I could put on my own productions. I like to keep them small, because dealing with more than one person can be difficult and can create anxiety. Jason is very grounding and wonderful to work with. I don’t feel like I’m doing it all myself because Jason is there to offer feedback and criticism where necessary. It’s my first time writing and producing a play that’s more than one person, so every time I’ve done a show, I’ve learnt something new.

K: Jason, you met Alex while working on another play at the Masque Theatre. What is your your acting background.

Jason: I also started acting at a young age, doing lots of community theatre, plays in church and at school. I never had the opportunity to do drama or theatre as a subject, so I did it as an extra mural. After university I wanted to get more involved with theatre, so did a lot more community theatre, which reintroduced me to being on the stage. I did literature at UCT, which helped me prepare for my acting roles, but I never had formal training for acting for high school. It was jump in and see which shows I could do. Recently I’ve been taking my acting career more seriously, doing short films and commercials. Everything before this has been unpaid community theatre.

K: Alex, what inspired you to write “Wrong Faces”? Was there an event or a specific thought process that inspired you to start writing?

A: It started in the first few months of lockdown and having to write a play for an assignment at university. I was going through that feeling of isolation that everyone experienced, craving human contact. I wanted to write something that touched on both of those things. We live in a world where people aren’t being vulnerable with each other. They may be vulnerable with a life partner or family members, but people are afraid of showing who they really are or what they’re going through with people they are unfamiliar with. I was really cynical at the time I wrote the first draft; the people I was associated with weren’t giving me a space to share what I was going through at the time. Friends and family didn’t want me to open up about things I was going through. I’m far less cynical now. I wanted to write about two strangers putting up facades and hiding what they are going through. That slow peeling back of masks, being forced to reveal themselves to each other. 

K: Alex, what was your writing process? How did you go about structure and content…which did you start with? 

A: I usually start with just spewing out everything I have in my head. The first draft was a scribble in a notebook in one night. Then I typed it out, looked at story structure and climax, deciding if certain things needed to happen at certain points. I put those in after so I’m not compromising the initial ideas. It starts with character and not plot; the plot structures itself as I’m writing and then restructures with continuous changing an editing. If I have characters, I like to let them talk even if it’s pointless at first. I just let them have a conversation even if it goes in a weird direction, to see where it leads me. I try not to be too hard on myself. Then I go back and edit, cut, see where tension needs to rise in a natural way.

K: How has your working relationship affected the portrayal of your characters? You two seem to be quite close friends. Does this affect the rehearsal process at all?

J: Alex and I met this time last year, and we hit it off, finding chemistry quickly. We met in a play. Both characters were fond of each other, and we let it grow from there. We naturally became friends and grew comfortable with each other. This closeness helps. The characters in “Wrong Faces” begin as strangers. We know how to navigate each other in that space. 

Alex: We always had chemistry even when we weren’t that familiar with each other.  And then our chemistry rose the more I got to know and respect Jason, so it only improved onstage. We have both been quite honest and vulnerable with each other from the start. We’ve always shared, some might say oversharing. But our characters also share moments of vulnerability. Some could say the characters journeys are a dramatized but shortened version of our relationship. 

K: What was the biggest challenge to making this show happen?

A: I think it’s just a lot of stress, and I stress a little more than the average person, so with every production I’ve been stressed, but it’s getting easier each time. Jason is a calming presence. Professionally, I’ve been told that I have a theatrical voice, and I try to lose that and make it sound closer to my character, who is quirky and pretentious in an artsy way. I wanted to separate myself from the character. I’m trying to be more tom-boyish and relaxed in the space. I tense up a lot and fiddle, so trying to be more boisterous with my body. And casual. Every performance gets better.

J: For me it’s been scaling down to the intimacy of the show. I’m not used to being this intimate onstage, I’m used to being over the top. This was a positive challenge for me. I tried to play it up more naturally than theatrically, finding the way to get to the theatrical performance that’s still natural and believable and grounded.

K: Alex, how do you manage the balance between your obvious friendship and wearing the director’s hat. How much discussion/debate is there on decisions?

A: It is difficult because I can’t watch myself. I’m often trying to direct Jason from my position on stage, so I never get to sit back in the audience and watch for improvements. It’s always coming from a different perspective. It can help because I’m receiving what he’s giving me, but I feel bad sometimes because I give myself crit on the spot. We both have a lot of respect for each other. I only worry about letting him down. I still don’t fully feel like a director.

J: I very much enjoy working with Alex because of the free form nature of her work. When running a scene Alex will direct herself and direct me. From my perspective I enjoy I because it makes everything comprehensive and the way my mind works. She’s an accessible director. This makes it easier to engage with the work. The things Alex mentioned I feel the opposite, it’s all a plus for me. 

K: Alex, this is your third run of the show, following a run at the Masque Theatre and the Outlore Base. Where do you see the future of this show; do you have any idea’s as to where you would like to take the production?

A: I would like to do one longer run of the show. I’ve been doing short runs because I don’t know how to pull in that many people for that many nights. I would like to end it off doing a full 10 day or 2 week run and either doing it at another independent theatre or more established place. I like the idea of independent theatre because it’s such an intimate piece, so it suits a smaller space. Bigger places have a grand feel to them, and I don’t think this is the of play for that. It’s a small story: their entire world is a bathroom. 

J: I agree with Alex. It’s been nice to have a varied experience of performing around Cape Town, enjoy being close to the audience. The play suits a grungy punk vibe: everything is from the ground up, all independent. It suits unorthodox venues.