Richard Stirling and Chris Larkin in The Gathered Leaves. Photo by Rich Southgate.Through flashbacks, we meet the young Pennington brothers acting-out an early William Hartnell episode of Dr Who, where precision in dialogue delivery is of vital importance to autistic Samuel (Joe Burrell) and a source of considerable discomfort for Giles (Ellis Elijah). Fast forward several decades and the siblings (now embodied by Richard Stirling and Chris Larkin) continue to manage and maintain their challenging rapport. Giles now has a wife Sophie (Zoë Waites) and grown-up bickering children Simon (George Lorimer making his professional debut) and Emily (Ella Dale), all of whom are gathered at the Pennington family home presided over by William and Olivia (Jonathan Hyde and Joanne Pearce) in anticipation of the imminent arrival of their prodigal daughter Alice (Olivia Vinall) who was required to leave 17 years before, due to an unexpected pregnancy. As the weekend gathering coalescences around William’s imminent birthday and dysfunction threatens to overtake their ordered existence, he and Olivia have announcements to make, frustrations to express and apologies to issue. Most significantly, how will Aurelia (Taneetrah Porter) respond to this first meeting with her grandparents and extended family?
As ageing patriarch William, Jonathan Hyde bestrides the set with a stiffness redolent of his desire for generational continuity. His power however, is waning and in acknowledging his recent vascular dementia diagnosis, there is a real sense of his need to put his house in order to necessitate a smooth changing of the guard. That he chooses to give the nod to his grandson Simon during a session of backgammon, is significant and redolent of the contempt and perpetual accusations of disappointment he levels at Chris Larkin’s embattled but stoic Giles. Richard Stirling’s sensitively observed portrayal of Samuel is never less than compelling and believable, without ever pulling focus. Finally, Joanne Pearce’s fearsome matriarch Olivia, provides the fiery gel which binds the Pennington clan together and maintains a reassuring order.
Ranged across Dick Bird’s classic beige and green drawing room setting, the cast aspire to create the intangible — a realistic upper middle class British family boasting its fair share of skeletons, whilst avoiding any sense of pastiche. The fact that this challenge is met with vigour and grace, is due in no small part to the subtle and assured direction of Adrian Noble. Under his aegis, the frequent outbursts never feel shouty nor included for mere effect. This is both a testament to the quality of the writing and the cast’s collective interpretation and understanding of their individual characters and their place within this genteel pressure cooker.
THE GATHERED LEAVES continues at Park Theatre until 20th September.
