Review: Leaves

Set roughly ten years after the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a hanging sense of disillusionment is still raw in Leaves.

Lori (Harriet Gordon-Anderson) arrives home from her first semester of University after a suicide attempt, and must learn to live in a world that she wants to leave behind. Her parents Phyllis and David (Amanda Stephens-Lee and Simon Lyndon) desperately want to know where they have gone wrong and want nothing more than to restore the guise of normalcy. Her younger sisters Poppy and Clover (Poppy Lynch and Bobbie-Jean Henning) also struggle with their own questions about their relationship with their older sibling.

Although the elephant in the room is initially avoided with restrained caution, open wounds and the need to heal them compel the search for hope amidst the nostalgia for the past. However, Leaves isn’t just about depression or even really about the echoes of the Troubles. It encapsulates the courage of going on even when we don’t know how to.

The set is uncluttered and awash with a melancholic orange hue. Brittle leaves fall out of story books and crunch under feet as fading Autumn starts to grow more chilly. The world on stage maintains an umber glow; highlighting harsh white lighting and the downtrodden image of dinner in a pot going cold in the middle of the table in contrasting scenes.

Leaves is peppered with plenty of moments of tenderness. It explores feelings of distance and closeness and the complexity of family; addressing the desire to push away those you love even when you know you need them the most.

Tensions run high during the course of the play; the continual escalation and build up of emotion in too frequent bursts can become a little monotonous, leaving you to crave a bit of reprieve. However, the production successfully constructs a credible world that simultaneously exudes pain and warmth. You may emerge from the theatre swimming wistfully in memory, a little sombre but also hopeful about the future. (SH)

Until Jul 23. Kings Cross Theatre, 2/244–248 William St, Kings Cross. $27-$35. Tickets & info: kingsxtheatre.com

BY SHON HO