Review: PERSONAL VALUES, Hampstead Theatre

When physical items take over your life, what space is left for real people? Personal Values, the debut play from Chloe Lawrence-Taylor, seeks to answer this question, digging through boxes and bags to examine family, grief, and memory. What it uncovers is intriguing, but hidden under bulky writing and pacing issues. 

On a stage covered in magazines, letters, board games, cutlery, lampshades and more, we meet sisters Bea (Rosie Cavaliero) and Veda (Holly Atkins). We’re in Bea’s home, which has been overtaken by her hoarding condition. Once close, the sisters' relationship has repeatedly fractured over the years, cracked open by past losses and losses yet to come. They’ve grown into very different people: while Veda has a husband and teenage son, Bea is alone in the house she used to share with their late father, instead kept company by all her belongings. 

Two thirds of Lawrence-Taylor’s play is spent exploring the dynamic between the two sisters, consciously side-stepping around the term ‘hoarding’ itself but alluding to it through references to TV documentaries and therapists. Cavaliero and Atkins both give strong performances, but pacing issues with the writing make this section of the play drag: shouty conflicts arise too soon, before we’ve come to care about the stakes at play. We're left with a lack of direction: the dialogue falls heavily on the side of tell-rather-than-show, the women sometimes monologuing rather than actively engaging with one another.

It becomes more interesting when the naturalism suddenly and unexpectedly falls away for a moment. Director Lucy Morrison briefly twists and subverts the existing set and lighting, taking us towards something more colourful and more imaginative. Unfortunately, however, this break is so at odds with the rest of the play that it ends up feeling out of place rather than like a new direction. As the rug is pulled out from under us, the play loses cohesion.

The final scene of Personal Values is where the play is at its most interesting. Confusing as it may be, it takes a more surreal look at how physical objects can evoke people and memories. This is also helped by the addition of Archie Christoph-Allen as Bea’s son Ash, who gives the play a new burst of energy. His performance is moving, if a little out of step with the two women. 

Conceptually, Personal Values could be a fascinating show. The interplay of objects and people is rich with potential, and at its most imaginative, Lawrence-Taylor’s writing has strokes of bravery and form-pushing creativity. Regrettably, the concept and ambition of this play doesn’t mesh with its sedentary style and misplaced emotional beats. 

Nonetheless, it’s reassuring to see that despite losing its ACE funding, Hampstead Theatre continues to be able to platform debut playwrights. As producer Greg Ripley-Duggan writes in the programme, experienced creatives like Morrison, set designer Naomi Dawson, and sound designer Max Pappenheim give debut writers an invaluable opportunity to see their work fully realised.

Speaking of these creatives: Pappenheim's sound design is evocative and controlled. While a more abstract set could have been interesting, Dawson demonstrates a keen eye for detail, and, along with lighting designer Holly Ellis, executes some excellently subtle shifts. 

While it may not fully work in its current form, Personal Values is certainly a play that leaves you thinking, and wondering what’s real and what’s not. I’m still not sure.

Personal Values runs at Hampstead Theatre (Downstairs) until 17 May 2025