Writer: Chloë Lawrence-Taylor
Director: Lucy Morrison
New playwright Chloë Lawrence-Taylor debuts her first professional play at Hampstead Theatre, examining the limits of grief and how reasonable it is to lean on someone else to shoulder that burden at the expense of their mental health. Personal Values, running for 60 minutes, has some interesting points to make about sibling relationships and the distances that grow between them as adults, but like central character Bea’s overstuffed house, it gets a little lost in the piles of stuff that derail character and narrative.
Visiting her sister Bea at the family home for the first time since their father died, Veda is shocked to see that her hoarding has increased, leaving Bea essentially living in one room and unable to separate memories from clutter. But Veda’s visit has a purpose, and with her own life spiralling, she hopes that reconnecting with her sister will create a future connection with Veda’s son Ash.
Lawrence-Taylor’s play builds a strong connection between the sisters, wasting little time in delving into the years of anxiety and frustration that have grown between them, cutting through the small talk to get to the meat of their irritations with each other as only family can. And this well-staged interaction, which dominates most of the play, nicely depicts a shared history and a series of memories that are both warming and the cause of considerable tension at the same time. Lawrence-Taylor’s control of the dialogue flows naturally between these moments of solidarity and the relative despair they both feel at the loss of their family and what has happened to one another in the interim.
In creating them, there is a little unevenness however – Bea (Rosie Cavaliero) is generally more rounded, the layers and depth of her condition lend much greater credibility in the text that is full of contradiction, wanting cleanliness and ascribing a clear order to her collected possessions yet unable to stop herself buying more cutlery especially as an outlet for her control issues. The notion that Bea is embarrassed by her home, preventing her from forming friendships, is an interesting avenue to pursue, a self-recognition that contrasts with her inability to tackle it, still bathing every item with comforting memories that make it impossible to break the connection.
Veda (Holly Atkins), by contrast, recognises her sister’s preference for inanimate things over people, but is herself only a collection of facts – a husband and now adult son, an illness and a means to reflect Bea’s conditions rather than a rounded individual in her own right. There is more to explore here in Veda’s connection to both deceased parents, why she left and why she has taken so long to return.
It makes the play’s final chapter rather aimless as son Ash (Archie Christopher-Allen) arrives for a separate duologue with Bea. But Veda’s impression isn’t strong or purposeful enough to carry the weight of this discussion or to help the audience understand what the rather sentimental conclusion is saying. It feels appended instead of integral, and Personal Values would be considerably stronger without it and the fanciful twist that provokes it.
A promising start from Lawrence-Taylor with plenty to work with, but in shape, this intimate story of loss and struggle, the women’s story alone is enough.
Runs until 17 May 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Such devoted sisters
