"New York is lost", one character tellingly states in the second of Richard Nelson's four - part play cycle, set on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Opening to the sounds of background memorial concerts, Sweet and Sad saw the middle class New York Apple family gather before amnesiac actor Benjamin’s (John DeVries) public ceremony Walt Whitman reading.

As matriarchal sister Barbara (MaryAnn Plunkett) welcomed guests, personal struggles, family resentments and touching compassion subtly arose in a refreshingly quiet way.

Ten years on from the momentous event they were marking, more personal stories of grief occupied our protagonists. Sell-out liberal lawyer Richard (Jay O. Sanders) was losing his vision both metaphorically and literally; young actor Tim (Jesse Pennington) lamented the stolen history of a downtown forever changed while his wife Jane (Sally Murphy) mourned elusive hopes for the future.

Flawless performances from a talented cast subtly wrought out all the emotion, thoughtful personal and political observation and Brechtian wit of Nelson’s intelligent script, rendering characters entirely three-dimensional, the viewer keen to know them better.

Perfectly embodying this year’s Festival curator Ali Smith’s chosen theme of flight, this was an insightful study of a family flocking together to survive life’s hard knocks.

FOUR STARS