Review: The Cone Gatherers, King’s Theatre

In many ways, Peter Arnott’s adaptation of Robin Jenkins’ The Cone Gatherers feels like Scottish Steinbeck.

* * * * 
Two brothers, Neil and Callum, are sent to a country estate during the Second World War to gather pine cones so that trees can be replanted. Callum is crippled and mentally handicapped, while his brother is charged to look after him. Their arrival does not sit well with the groundskeeper, John Duror, who, hampered by a bedridden and misshapen wife, has an intrinsic and disturbing hatred of imperfection.

Alongside this, Neil expresses bitterness at the estate’s luxuries. However, the young master of the house, Roddie, can’t comprehend the division, going out of his way to talk to the gatherers.