Remarkable Invisible at The Studio, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

PERFECTLY paced, the world premiere of writer Laura Eason’s new play at Theatre by the Lake captures the minutiae of family tensions and relationships, linked together by the invisible thread that is the family bond, writes KAREN MORLEY-CHESWORTH.

Set in the New Jersey home of an ageing professor and his academic wife, the adult children return to ensure their parents pack up and move on to their retirement home, The Pines.

As a family’s life is sieved through and boxed up, the skeletons and buried histories are released from the cardboard and boxing tape like Pandora’s box.

There is often a sense of dread when you hear the first words uttered from an English actor in an American accent - however, there is nothing to fear here as dialect coach, Elspeth Morrison has brought the very best out of these four actors.

Ian Barritt and Eliza Hunt as parents, Dr Peter Solverson and his wife Helen, capture the sadness and joy of a life well lived.

Siblings Christopher Solverson-Chase and Astrid Solverson are the chalk and cheese of the family, captured to perfection by Matt Addis and Alice Selwyn.

Barritt gives a powerful performance. As the former NASA professor, he is captured delivering snippets of a presentation to the lab where he works, studying ESP. In those moments, he is larger than life, inspired and in command.

The gentile movement of Hunt and her measured tone of voice is that of a mother keeping a stiff-up-a-lip, self-sacrificing way of a mother.

This is a study of what being a family is - more secrets than open conversation for fear of upsetting, more questions than answers.

As Chris discovers the harder you try to get away from something, the more entangled your life becomes with that person: is this the family bond he never sees?

Brilliantly written and produced, this is a gem of a new play.

Remarkable Invisible by Laura Eason runs until November 4.