In the beginning was the face.
In Romeo Castellucci’s 2011 theatre piece On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God, the titular face was the inescapable, disconcerting, beatific visage of Jesus that dominated the mise-en-scène, gazing out across the audience as it gazed back. Castellucci borrowed the face from a detail of the 1465 oil on wood image known as Christ Blessing painted by Renaissance master Antonello de Messina, which depicts Jesus as Salvator Mundi—the savior of the world. Projected across a vast backdrop that loomed over the action unfolding beneath it, the face stared placidly outwards, luminescent and enormous, inviting—or perhaps challenging—all who viewed it to contemplate its inscrutable regard.
In spite of what the face did, it was what was done to and beneath its gaze that inspired critical responses ranging from apoplectic to apathetic. The production’s stint in Paris provoked a now infamous...