Don't I know you?

I have an awful memory for faces in general, but in particular for people I've just met. As some people forget names after a few minutes, I can just as easily forget a face unless I put some effort into trying to shunt into longer term memory. This may or may not be unusual - I've not exactly polled many people on the matter.

I was watching Frasier tonight as it edges towards it's final episode. I haven't watched it much this season, since I fell out of the habit of watching it regularly sometime ago but I'm curious to find out how it concludes. I was pleased to discover it remains a finely written series, still capable of touching poignancy between some genuine moments of wit. It may not sparkle quite as brightly as in it's hey-day ("Two minute McSessions" heh) but it's far from being a shadow of it's former self. Tonight it featured an actor I was certain I'd seen somewhere before, but frustratingly I couldn't place where. I had to do a quick search on IMDB to discover that the gentleman in question is Aaron Eckhart and the reason why his face should be familiar is because I spent a couple of hours in his presence on Saturday when I went along to see Oleanna, a David Mamet play about a student and teacher who form a horrendously toxic (and non-sexual) relationship from which neither emerge unscathed. It's probably not Mamet's best work, since the dialogue is a little too highly stylised, even by his normal standards, but it's still a fascinating piece of theatre (albeit thoroughly unpleasant in several ways) . Eckhart was playing one of the leads, opposite Julia Stiles - it's a only two person play. I should probably have recalled his face slightly better that I did as he actually left quite an impression on me after play's emotionally charged climax. In the final scene Eckhart's character lets loose his repressed rage in an ugly display of misogyny which is frightening to behold and which visibly shocked the audience. The curtain call came just moments afterwards during which Eckhart stood on stage, fists still clenched tightly and visibly shaking from overwhelming emotion.

The image stayed with me, even though the face did not.