The Son - Kiln theatre

Btw, a couple of the cast were interviewed on Sunday Brunch yesterday - a three hour cooking show is now one of the few places on TV where you see actors talking about plays they're in.

Press night is this coming Monday, 2nd September. Fleabag press night is tonight. If the person exclaiming was expecting Fleabag, I can see why they were so pleased it was over...

Ah yes sorry, checked the email again - this was a 'preview performance'. Response was still incredibly muted...

It was a muted response when I saw it at the Kiln but that’s more a reaction to the gut-wrenching bleakness of it. A muted response doesn’t always indicate a poor evening at the theatre. It’s a good play.

Thought this was great although I agree the (presumably) deliberately restrained acting style maybe worked against the content. Thought both parents (and the stepmother) were dreadful people!!

Seemed quite full this afternoon, all levels open. Enthusiastic audience response with partial standing ovation

Thinking about it in retrospect

I saw this on Friday night (in excellent £15 TodayTix offer Circle seats), and also thought it was a very good production. It is indeed powerful, owing most of it to Kynaston's superb performance. He is truly captivating and utterly convincing as a young man suffering from depression. Overall I also felt that the production had an honest feel about it: it is true that it is not particularly inventive in terms of the plot as some people here noted (in that respect, it is actually quite predictable), but I did get a strong sense throughout that I was watching a family struggle and fall apart under the weight of depression, not really knowing what to do, and for me that was quite enough. (Admittedly, I was a bit divided on John Light's performance: at times he was quite good, but occasionally he seemed a bit... too theatrical.) 

The only thing i kind of disliked about the production was the choice of music in the scenes that carried particular emotional weight. It struck me as unnecessarily dramatic, and perhaps a bit of a cliche. As if the director didn't trust his actors enough that they would manage to convey all the emotions, and sort of decided to highlight these scenes to tell us (the audience) that we are meant to find them particularly tragical. I would have preferred something more subtle; this way it just seemed like an unwelcome distraction from the acting. 

But I think that it is definitely worth seeing, for Kynaston's performance alone. (And I, too, now sincerely regret not having seen The Father.)

I saw this yesterday and I can only repeat what everyone else said. It was a good play which never deviated from racing towards the inevitable and predictable ending. I took me a little time to get into it but it just got stronger and stronger. Good job they didn't break it up with an interval.

I agree with someone who didn't like the music played during one of the emotive scenes. It was silly.

I didn't like initially the way the father was played. It felt I wasn't watching the father but rather the actor playing the father. He sounded false. But it went as the play progressed.

Finally I wasn't always sure of the way depression was portrayed. I've never had any kind of depression and yes I am prone to believing people should pull themself together. I know it's wrong but I kept thinking it really cannot be like this.

I understand and appreciate it. But I only understand because I was "told". It is very hard to really understand what people go through without having any experience with it

Old news, but I just found out that they're adapting this as a film!

Already in post production and set to come out this year. Starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby - www.imdb.com/title/tt14458442/