That framing choice is doing all the lift. Back to back puts their faces at opposite edges and lets the negative space between them hold tension without asking anything else to compete. I've got a stack of failed figure drawings where I tried to load in a third element and it just fell apart, so watching two people and sharp contrast carry this much presence without needing another layer is a lesson I keep running into the hard way.

The makeup work and costuming here carry so much weight when everything else drops away. I keep trying to simplify down to two or three elements in my figure drawings and failing at it, so seeing how much presence two people and the right framing can hold without anything competing for attention hits hard.