The Gathered Leaves at the Park Theatre – review

A production in the making since 2009, The Gathered Leaves is a classic Hampstead family drama, full of juicy, nuanced character relations and wry quips. Unfortunately, it falls flat where it counts the most.

It’s William’s birthday, and as the ageing patriarch, he gathers his family around for the first – and maybe last – time in years to say what he must before his mind begins to betray him.

Gabrielle Dawes’ casting is superb: Jonathan Hyde as William is snobbish and curmudgeonly with a sharp tongue and glimmers of charm only when he desires. Richard Stirling as Samuel, the older son with autism, is incredibly charming, and his timing, both comic and not, is masterful. Chris Larkin as Giles, the younger son, is endearing and heartbreaking in turn, but writer Andrew Keatley has given him a tricky character trajectory, which does a disservice to Larkin and which I ultimately find hard to believe.

It’s Joanne Pearce as Olivia, William’s wife, who steals the show: good-natured and generous on the one hand, she always appears right on the cusp of a total breakdown, and when there are so many people on stage, it’s to her that my eye is drawn.

There’s something old-fashioned about this kind of story, firstly because it’s such a full cast, complete with younger versions of the two brothers at the opening of both the first and second half. This is always a treat when so many productions are necessarily bare bones.

Dick Bird’s set is also classic: a tasteful living room, obviously belonging to a fairly wealthy family. There’s nothing edgy here, and rightfully so. Similarly, Max Pappenheim’s sound design, which largely consists of longing, sentimental piano interludes, feels of a time gone by.

But it’s also an old-fashioned kind of story: an ailing father finally being confronted by his children’s disappointments in him. Keatley clearly has a firm intention that everything has to resolve itself. What starts as some very interesting, complicated and tense family dynamics all turns to mush by the end in order to have the big family reunion. It’s drearily fantastical, putting words into the mouth of a man who would never suddenly realise that everyone else was right all these years.

In his programme notes, Keatley writes about the process of getting Gathered Leaves to the stage, and how much editing the script has been through in the last 20 years. But I don’t see how much of a haircut it could have had at two hours and 45 minutes. It’s not that Keatley’s writing isn’t sharp and witty, and at times insightful. It’s that it could have been excellent, and instead, he’s settled for something closer to fine.