The Children

Well, there's timely, and there's timely and then there's staging a production of The Children, while the world seems to be literally going to hell in a handcart. And as a young Boomer who grew up during the Cold War and its accompanying abundance of futuristic, post-nuclear-apocalyptic films, I couldn't help feeling particularly shook with a sense of deja vu.

Lucy Kirkwood's play first appeared in 2016 - 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster. That event occured a mere seven years after the nuclear reactor-themed film The China Syndrome - which was released a mere 12 days before the real life Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Those were nervous days to be coming of age, when my generation were asking ourselves "is this going to be a safe world into which we bring children?"

With the end of the Cold War, the de-escalation of the arms race, were just starting to chillax about the fate of the world. But then a certain orange-tinted human being decided to run for The Top Job in 2015.

This play presents a very intimate, day-to-day spin on the possible repercussions of a post-nuclear-fallout world. The bombs being dropped are of the 'truth' variety and like most good, reality-based dramas, there's plenty of ironic humour sprinkled throughout. Kerri Gay, Antony Butchart and Bron Strange are well cast as old friends with old secrets. They not only have chemistry, their personalities chime well with their performances. 

Thus, this trio effortlessly embodies the different life paths and divergent personal agendas depicted here. And yet their fate remains so closely woven together, as to form a kind of human knot. It's an intricate, wordy play, but nothing is "telegraphed" at the start, for which props must be given to director Chris Jackson. His restraint in allowing the writing to do it's thing made for a delightful sense of intrigue from the start. Praise also for all the creative touches on the production side (set, costumes, et al) provided either by himself or in collaboration with Grace Roberts. An evocative evening at the theatre, indeed.

Rose Cooper

Photographer: eva.dudes