Holly Atkins as Veda and Rosie Cavaliero as Bea in Personal Values. Credit Helen Murray.Directed by Lucy Morrison, the three hander is an awkward amalgamation of two very distinct sections. The first two thirds explores the complications of estranged sisterhood through the coming together of Veda (Holly Atkins) and Bea (Rosie Cavaliero) in the latter’s cluttered but immaculately curated time capsule of a living room, dedicated to all the memory inducing detritus accumulated by her late parents.
Veda is shocked and disgusted in equal measure, but attempts to suppress commenting on the compulsive hoarding and instead, apologise for breaking-off relations since their father’s funeral. This had been the last time the two women had seen or spoken to each other and was the occasion at which Bea scratched something unmentionable onto the bonnet of her sister’s beloved car. There’s an urgency in Veda’s need to mend bridges, which we learn is as the result of being diagnosed with a serious illness. Married to a useless husband who spends most of his time in the garage and mother to a sensitive son who has gradually become more isolated in his bedroom playing online games, she knows her time is limited and wants to rekindle familial ties to ensure a feminine influence after she has gone.
Shaded lamps ranged about the space periodically fizzle and flicker amidst Naomi Dawson’s ramshackle set of LPs, newspapers, boxes and cutlery. As each light fades in turn, they act as a metaphor for time passing. However, despite the relatively short 1 hour running time (without interval), the talking shop nature of the first 40 minutes, feels somewhat stilted and laboured as the sisters chew over old grievances and tip toe around trigger issues. It is only when Veda’s son Ash (Archie Christoph-Allen) appears, and a discussion about a juniper bonsai tree (of all things!) ensues, that a hint of the supernatural informs the play and offers something vastly more interesting than mere testiness and sensitivity towards historical events and poor decision-making. Ash’s vulnerability at this point and more particularly his need to understand and connect with his aunt, are palpable. And it is the young graduate actor’s nuanced approach to dealing with the joint burdens of responsibility and bereavement at an early age, which helps lift the narrative out of the dirge and into an altogether more compelling piece. It suggests he is a talent to watch and a potentially big success waiting to happen.
