The Son

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22 August 2019 · Follow on Stagedoor

“First seen at the Kiln earlier this year, Michael Longhurst’s much liked production marks another West End gig for French playwright Florian Zeller who has already had successes with The Father and The Mother. This third play–completely stand alone—focuses on Nicholas, a teenager who starts skipping school and getting into trouble following his parents’ divorce. Laurie Kynaston reprises his acclaimed performance as a teen in the depths of depression.”

Best of the West End

19 August 2019 · Follow on Stagedoor

“Florian Zeller’s plays have been hitting the West End like clockwork since The Father became the sensation of the year back in 2015. His latest work to arrive on the West End comes via the Kiln Theatre, where it garnered a string of strong reviews back in February.”

Overview

Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller, lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst and forms the final part of the critically acclaimed trilogy with The Father and The Mother.

I’m telling you. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.

Nicolas is going through a difficult phase after his parents’ divorce. He’s listless, skipping school, lying and thinks that moving in with his father and his new family may help. A fresh start. When he doesn’t settle there either, he decides that going back to his mother’s may be the answer. When change feels like the only way to survive, what will he do when the options begin to run out?

Critic reviews

Laurie Kynaston is terrific in unnerving and beautifully sensitive drama

⋅ Evening Standard

A shockingly accurate representation of not just the illness, but the attitudes and miscomprehension that so often surrounds it

⋅ Theatre Weekly

A piercing drama of depression

⋅ The Arts Desk

Michael Longhurst’s flowing production is tense

⋅ London Theatre

Longhurst takes this realism and translates it into an urgent piece that becomes a case study as much as cautionary tale

⋅ Broadway World

A uniquely emphatic and empathetic play about the terror of depression

⋅ The Telegraph

This is a play that fully deserves all the accolades that it will surely collect

⋅ West End Wilma

The only letdown is that The Son adds up to less than the sum of its parts, with a literalness that extends to putting straight-forwardly sad music over the sadness on stage

⋅ The Londonist

Unbearably moving, all the more so because it also taps into the genuine joys of family life

Lyn Gardner for Stagedoor