Family Dysfunction
“Have the baby but you cannot be my daughter anymore.”
William Pennington to Alice 17 years ago
The Gathered Leaves by Andrew Keatley returns to the Park Theatre after ten years when the author has continued to work on it. This was because of some advice, which likened writing a play to working on a statue. “You carry on chipping away at the marble until there’s no stone left that you can afford to lose”. It is essentially the story of a family reunion for the birthday of William Pennington (Jonathan Hyde). There are three generations present all descended from William and his wife Olivia (Joanne Pearce). It is directed by Adrian Noble
William is suffering from vascular dementia but he is the autocratic head of the family. We have no reason to believe that as a younger man, he was any more amenable and affable. This is because he told his twenty-one year old pregnant daughter Alice (Olivia Vinall) to leave home because her child, Aurelia, was to be mixed race. That was 17 years ago and he hasn’t seen his daughter or granddaughter since.
William and Olivia’s eldest child is Giles (Chris Larkin), a doctor married to Sophie (Zoë Waites) with children almost grown up Simon (George Lorimer) and Emily (Ella Dale). The middle child is Samuel (Richard Stirling) who has autism. Much of the play is about Giles’s tender relationship with his younger brother Samuel.
There isn’t a lot that happens in The Gathered Leaves for its two hour forty minute run time. By the time you have worked out the family tree, there is not much to see. There are touching scenes between Samuel brilliantly played by Richard Stirling and brother Giles. Tetchy scenes between Sophie and Giles. Sophie going ballistic when she thinks Samuel was looking at her nude in the shower. Acceptance of Aurelia (Taneetrah Porter) from almost all of the family. A talk from William to Simon about his responsibility to carry on the family name, implying his responsibility to have a son, except that we have doubts as to the value of the family name after William’s behaviour.
The living room set features crystal glasses for the champagne cocktails William planned to welcome them but they were late for which Giles gets the blame for ruining William’s planned celebration. There is a chaise longue, a chandelier and Georgian arm chairs. The direction is fine if you are sitting in the long row facing the stage but for those of us on the wings, all too often two static figures gave us the back view of one and no view of the other actor.
The performances are fine. I warmed to Joanne Pearce’s Olivia in her trials as William’s wife and her protection of Simon the adult child, but not to Zoë Waites’s dislikable Sophie. Not many marriages you could call happy here! It is all believable for those that like to contemplate their theatre viewing but heavy going for this critic after immersion in 60 minute slots in Edinburgh.
Production Notes
The Gathered Leaves
Written by Andrew Keates
Directed by Adrian Noble
Cast
Starring:
Chris Larkin
Joanne Pearce
Jonathan Hyde
Olivia Vinall
Richard Stirling
Joe Burrell
Ella Dal
Ellis Elijah
George Lorimer
Taneetrah Porter
Zoë Waites
Creatives
Director: Adrian Noble
Set Designer: Dick Bird
Costume Designers: Dick Bird and Mike Lees
Lighting Designer: Paul Pyan
Sound Director: Max Pappenheim
Information
Running Time: Two hours 40 minutes
Booking to 20th September 2025
Theatre:
Park 200
London N4 3JP
Tube: Finsbury Park
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge
at the Park Theatre
on 19th August 2025