Reviews: The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre)
All That Dazzles: Review
It is often the case that more drama is to be found at your own family gathering than in any play you are likely to see on the stage, so it is fitting that a family gathering is at the root of The Gathered Leaves, returning to its original home of London’s Park Theatre after a decade. Having been well received upon its initial run, would absence make the heart grow fonder, or would this family tree shed its leaves and stand a little more barren this time around?
The Standard: Review
Autism, racism, domestic bust-ups and generational rifts. Andrew Keatley’s slowly beguiling, 1997-set country house drama covers a lot of ground. It’s an old-fashioned and at times schematic family saga that nonetheless treats its multiple themes with seriousness and care and eventually exerts a cumulative power. Like the original production at the Park ten years ago, Adrian Noble’s elegant revival is peopled with thoroughbred stage actors, who plough determinedly through the boggier bits of dialogue and exposition.