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The Son review – Florian Zeller's frightening tale of teen depression

Kiln, London
Fear and fleeting joy punctuate an exploration of family dynamics, charting the upheaval of divorce and adolescence

Florian Zeller’s remarkable play completes a trilogy that views a single family from different perspectives. In The Father, the focus was on aged dementia and in The Mother on middle-aged angst. Now Zeller turns his attention to adolescent depression and the result, while displaying his usual technical skill, reminds us that his greatest gift is for generating emotion. I’d defy anyone not to be moved by this study of the disruptive dynamics of family life.

We sense something is amiss from the first moment when we see Laurie Kynaston as the teenage Nicolas alone in a room obsessively scribbling on a wall. His mother, Anne, then turns up at the home her ex-husband, Pierre, shares with his new lover, Sofia, and their baby son. Anne explains that Nicolas is unwell, has played truant from school for three months and that she can no longer cope. The solution – for the boy to live with his father – only makes matters worse. Nicolas lies, engages in self-mutilation, turns suicidal and even when he gets psychiatric help, it offers no answer.

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