The Son review: Takes a clear-sighted look at the pain of mental ill health with harrowing directness

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Henry Hitchings27 February 2019

Voguish French writer Florian Zeller burst into the consciousness of British theatregoers four years ago with The Father, a devastating portrait of the ravages of dementia. Since then he’s become a fixture on the London stage, and his latest play The Son is a bleak, characteristically clear-sighted look at the pain and turbulence of mental health disorders.

Amanda Abbington and John Light play Anne and Pierre, the divorced parents of Nicolas, a Parisian teenager whose mind is unravelling. He’s skipping lessons, hiding other people’s belongings and scribbling illegible messages on walls. His parents are unable to pinpoint the source of his malaise, instead clutching at signs that he may be on the road to recovery.

Nicolas’s own diagnosis is that life is weighing him down — arguably a less vivid expression of his unhappiness than the network of scars on his arms. As his depression deepens, his silences and evasions invite hard questions: about whether he really ought to be living with Pierre and his new partner Sofia, whether he’s fit to supervise their baby son, and who should get to make critical decisions relating to his wellbeing.

Michael Longhurst’s production has a nice sense of rhythm, and while it occasionally strains for intensity there are precise, sensitive performances from Abbington and Light — the latter particularly good at both businesslike fastidiousness and acute despair. Best of all is the woundingly raw Laurie Kynaston, who captures the lethargy of Nicolas and his capacity for sudden bursts of terrifying rage, as well as affording glimpses of the sunnier person he once was.

The Son wrong-foots the audience much less than Zeller’s plays tend to, lacking some of his usual teasing ambiguity. But it has a harrowing directness.

Until April 6 (020 7328 1000, kilntheatre.com)

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