Laura Horton's New Show LYN FACES Heads To The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Laura Horton, Fringe First Award Winner, returns with her second play to be staged at the Edinburgh Fringe. Lynn Faces, is a personal and punk rock look at regaining confidence after trauma. Laura's debut show Labyrinth Diet won an Offies OffComm award in 2021, and her debut Edinburgh show Breathless won a Fringe First Award in 2022, with 2023 runs at Soho Theatre and 59e59 Off-Broadway, gaining a New York Times critic's pick. New show, Lynn Faces, is also Laura's acting debut.

Lynn Faces is a moving show about the aftermath, echoes, and effects of an abusive relationship - all through the lens of Laura's long-time identification with Lynn Benfield (the long-suffering assistant in Alan Partridge) and punk music.

The play pulls from elements of Laura's real life over a ten-year period: on her 30th birthday, she found herself unemployed and lost. To keep her busy, Laura's friends challenged her to take photographs of people pulling her hero Lynn's iconic displeased grimace. The photo project put Laura on a new life path, which led to her introduction to the man who would become her toxic partner and then (thankfully) her ex.

Years later, a run-in with musical legend, The Slits frontwoman Viv Albertine, inspired Laura to channel her post-breakup emotions into a logical medium; punk music. One late night, she booked herself to perform a punk gig - before waking up with a hardcore hangover and the realisation that she had no musical ability. The idea remained: Lynn Faces, the play, tells the story of "Lynn Faces", the fantasy punk band, through which the central character expresses her anger and re-finds her confidence.

Madeleine MacMahon plays the central character in her ongoing creative collaboration with Laura, having starred in Breathless.

Leah is emerging from a deeply toxic breakup, nearing 40, and in need of a seismic change. What is one meant to do - drink a bottle of wine and form a punk band inspired by a fictional cardigan-wearing PA? Well, yes. Naturally.

This tragicomic, insightful, and poignant exploration of the long-term impacts of abusive relationships takes us along to this punk band's one and only gig in a tiny basement bar. Frontwoman Leah channels her long-term identification with the put-upon Lynn Benfield, Alan Partridge's assistant, to form the emotional core of the punk band at the centre of this hopeful piece, showing that recovery from her toxic dynamic is possible - with a little help from your friends.

This lightly chaotic but touching show takes us on a journey through the stages of healing and acceptance, via a whole lot of rage. Sticking two fingers up at her abusive ex-partner, Leah draws on the inner strength of Lynn - as well as her iconic faces, her stoicism, and her snazzy cardigans - to find her own power, humour, and liberation.

Lynn Faces is co-commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, Norwich Theatre and Theatre Royal Plymouth, and written by Laura Horton. It was one of 16 works selected for the inaugural Summerhall Surgeries programme in 2023 - a artist development initiative by Summerhall in partnership with the Fringe Society, showcasing innovative work by early-career artists.

Lynn Faces will be performed at 7.35pm in Summerhall Main Hall from 1st - 26th August (Not 12th or 19th)

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