THE STORY: After attempting suicide during her first term at university, Lori has come back home. Her parents can’t fathom what has caused the sudden change in their daughter, and her two young sisters are confused by their feelings of abandonment and betrayal. A poignant family drama, LEAVES displays Lucy Caldwell’s gift for keenly sensitive observation.
“Rightly, Caldwell leaves open the source of Lori’s malaise: It may spring from fears of the global future, Belfast’s strained normality or London exile. What gives the play its peculiar tang is Caldwell’s sensitivity to the fluctuations of family life…[she] confirms the Tolstoyan truth that all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way…” —The Guardian (UK).
“Spectacularly good…Caldwell has done a remarkable job of character creation, each one a totally credible, rounded individual; she also has an extraordinary grasp of the reality of suffering, as well as the triggers of self-preserving selfishness.” —Irish Independent.
“An unmissable play…This is Lucy Caldwell’s first full-length play, but it has the maturity, thoughtful compassion and controlled theatricality of experience.” —The Times (London).
“[A] strikingly mature work, both upsetting and, in the end, uplifting.” —Mail on Sunday (London).
