That Face: Sarah Benson to direct Elizabeth Marvel

Manhattan Theatre Club announce that Sarah Benson will direct Polly Stenham's Olivier Award-nominated That Face, starring three-time Obie winner Elizabeth Marvel.

That Face will open at NY City Center Stage I on 18 May 2010, following previews from 29 Apr and will run through to 27 Jun 2010.

That Face is a comic-drama that looks at an affluent family in freefall. Mia has been suspended from boarding school. Her brother, Henry, has dropped out altogether. And Martha (Elizabeth Marvel), their mum, manipulates them all. Money can no longer fix their problems - now it's up to them.

Additional casting and creative team for That Face will be announced in the coming weeks.

Tickets for That Face are now on sale.

Polly Stenham is a 22-year-old British playwright. That Face was her debut play, and premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2007, for which she won the Evening Standard's 2007 Charles Wintour Award and was named by the Critics Circle as that year's Most Promising Playwright. HEr second play 'Tusk Tusk' premiered at the Rotal Court in 2009, again to critical acclaim. She is currently working on her third play, and is adapting her previous two plays for the screen.

Sarah Benson (Director) is the Artistic Director of Soho Rep. Her credits include the NY Premiere pf Sarah Kane's 'Blasted' (Soho Rep), Erin Courtney's 'Quiver & Twitch,' (New York Stage & Film), 'The Lottery' (HERE Arts Center). Sarah moved to New York from London on a Fulbright for Theater Direction. She co-curated the 'PRELUDE Festival' at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center for two seasons. At Soho Rep she has commissioned and produced work by artists including: Annie Baker, Thomas Bradshaw, Cynthia Hopkins, Young Jean Lee, John Jesurun, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and Anne Washburn.

Elizabeth Marvel (Martha) last appeared at Manhattan Theatre Club in Caryl Churchill's 'Top Girls.' Other Broadway credits include 'Seascape' and 'An American Daughter' (both for Lincoln Center Theater) as well as 'Taking Sides' and 'The Seagull.' She will appear this season at the Public Theater in Suzan-Lori Parks' new play, 'Book of Grace.' Previous appearances at the Public include 'Henry V,' 'Troilus and Cressida,' 'King Lear,' and 'Silence, Cunning, Exile.' Other off-Broadway credits include 'Fifty Words' (MCC Theatre), Ethan Coen's 'Almost an Evening 'and Woody Allen's 'A Secondhand Memory' (both Atlantic Theater Company), 'Dark Matters' (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), 'Terrorism' (The New Group), 'Meshugah' (Naked Angels), Therese Raquin (Obie Award, CSC), Misalliance (Obie Award, Roundabout), Arts & Leisure (Playwrights Horizons), and at New York Theater Workshop: 'Hedda Gabler' (Obie Award),' A Streetcar Named Desire' (Obie Award),' Lydie Breeze,' 'Shopping and Fucking,' and 'Play Yourself.'