On the Face of It

The two characters of the play are: Derry (Derek): • A fourteen-year-old boy who has had one side of his face badly burned by acid. The disfigurement has made him deeply withdrawn, bitter, and fearful of other people. • He is convinced that the world sees him as a monster — he has internalised the unkind words and pitying looks he has received all his life. His mother, for instance, tells him that a woman whispered that his face was 'a terrible thing' and that it makes her 'sick.' • Derry is angry, prickly, and defensive. He assumes everyone will be repelled by him and he rejects pity and sympathy aggressively. Mr Lamb (also known as 'Lamey Lamb' by local children): • An elderly man who also has a disability — he lost a leg and has a tin leg in its place, due to a wartime bomb. • Mr Lamb lives alone in a large garden, and his gate is always open. He is calm, wise, and remarkably at peace with his disability and his solitude. • Despite being called 'Lamey Lamb' and mocked by children, he does not shut people out. He welcomes anyone who comes through his gate. How their relationship develops: • Derry sneaks into Mr Lamb's garden thinking it is empty — Mr Lamb catches him but, rather than driving him away, welcomes him warmly. • Mr Lamb engages Derry in conversation, slowly drawing out his fears, bitterness, and despair. • Through patient dialogue, Mr Lamb offers Derry an alternative way of seeing his disability — not as something that defines and imprisons him, but as simply a fact of life to be accepted and moved beyond. • Derry leaves to tell his mother where he is — promising to return. He does return, only to find that Mr Lamb has fallen from a ladder in the garden and died. The relationship is brief but profoundly transformative for Derry.

Mr Lamb's philosophy is the heart of the play, delivered through a series of wise, patient conversations: 1. Disability does not define a person: • Mr Lamb himself is living proof that a physical disability need not limit life or joy. He tends his garden, makes jelly from crab apples, reads, and keeps his gate open to the world — despite his tin leg and his solitude. • He tells Derry: 'You've only lost a leg... but if you'll look around, there's plenty of worse things.' 2. The world is not defined by how others see you: • Mr Lamb points out that Derry's real prison is not his burned face but his own perception of how others see him — and his reaction to that perception. • 'It's not what you look like — it's what you are inside.' The world outside is the same for everyone; what matters is the attitude you bring to it. 3. Everything in the world has beauty and purpose: • Mr Lamb speaks lovingly of his garden, of weeds ('I call them weeds — another man might call them wildflowers'), of bees, of the sounds around him. • His capacity to find beauty everywhere is his philosophy made visible — even things considered useless or ugly have their place. 4. Solitude vs. isolation: • Mr Lamb distinguishes between being alone and being lonely. He is often alone, but he fills his life with interest — books, the garden, passing people. • He warns Derry that shutting himself away in bitterness is a kind of living death. How it helps Derry: • By the end of their conversation, Derry is changed — he rushes back to be with Mr Lamb, overriding his mother's objections. He says: 'I want to go back. Because he's the first person who said what it is... that I could hear.' • Tragically, Derry returns to find Mr Lamb dead — but the transformation has already taken place. Derry has found a reason to engage with the world again.

The title operates on at least two levels and captures the play's central tension: The literal meaning — Derry's face: • The most immediate reference is to Derry's disfigured face — the burned cheek that has made him a social outcast and the source of his identity crisis. • 'On the face of it' — at first glance, the play is about a boy with a disfigured face and an old man with a tin leg: two outsiders whose paths cross in a garden. The idiomatic meaning — surface appearances: • The phrase 'on the face of it' also means 'at first glance' or 'superficially' — and the play is precisely about the gap between surface appearance and inner reality. • On the face of it: Derry is a damaged, withdrawn teenager; Mr Lamb is just an eccentric old man. But underneath, Derry is searching for a reason to live openly, and Mr Lamb is a profound philosopher of acceptance and courage. • The play insists that what is 'on the face of it' — what you see at first glance — is almost always misleading. Central themes: 1. Disability and identity: The play explores how disability shapes self-perception and social identity. Both Derry and Mr Lamb are defined by others by their physical differences — but the play challenges whether that defining is right. 2. The cruelty of social perception: Other people's words — a mother's whisper that Derry's face is 'a terrible thing,' children calling Mr Lamb 'Lamey Lamb' — do profound damage. The play is a quiet indictment of the cruelty of casual judgement. 3. Isolation vs. connection: Derry chooses isolation to avoid pain; Mr Lamb chooses openness despite pain. The play argues powerfully for connection. 4. The value of wisdom and mentorship: A brief, unexpected encounter can transform a life. Mr Lamb gives Derry something his mother, his school, and his own bitterness cannot — a reason to re-engage with the world.