The Children
Lucy Kirkwood
Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington
Star rating: 3.5
Lucy Kirkwood’s 90 minute play, which premiered at The Royal Court in 2016 is an interesting and perspicacious piece. And like all the best drama it functions at more than one level. On the surface it’s about living with, and in the aftermath of nuclear power station accident known as “the disaster”. More generally it forces us to confront the responsibilities older people have to future generations.
A taut three hander, The Children presents Hazel (Rosanna Preston) and Robin (Jon Gilmartin), both retired nuclear engineers, being visited by their former colleague and friend Rose (Trudi Dane). There is a lot to catch up with and baggage to sort including an old affair between Robin and Rose. The cottage Hazel and Robin now live in (very realisitic kitchen set by Rob Hebblethwaite) is 10 miles from the derelict power station which is now in an exclusion zone. They haven’t seen Rose for a long time but eventually it transpires that she has returned from America with an altruistic agenda – which presents an existential crisis for all three.
Preston is convincing as the bustling, practical Hazel dealing with limited power in the cottage, proactively looking after her own health which includes yoga and healthy meals prepared from very limited supplies. Only when she gets angry and feels threatened do we get a glimpse of the nuclear physicist she once was.
Trudi Dane excels as Rose, more vulnerable than her worldly manner suggests. Much more glamorous than Hazel who has four children and some grandchildren, she doesn’t look anything like the 65 she claims to be and I couldn’t make up my mind whether that was a casting issue or a deliberate decision to make Rose look half Hazel’s age. Either way Rose is, by implication because of exposure to radiation, in remission from cancer just as Robin, ominously starts to bleed from his gums after an altercation with his wife. Gilmartin’s Robin is a mixture of ineffectual bumbling, memories of sexual adventures and kindness to his wife. The three-way balance is tight.
This is a well directed (Jonathan Reed) quite compelling account of a fine play. It is also touching in another way. The production is dedicated to the much missed John Chapman who died suddenly last year. For a long time John, who often directed and acted (very good in Krapp’s Last Tape) was my main contact at Tower Theatre and I used to meet him at first nights elsewhere. He was cast as Robin in The Children but his death two weeks before the show would have gone up meant that it had to be postponed until now.
