In Lucy Kirkwood’s play “The Children,” nothing is certain—much like our world has been since it was turned inside out during a catastrophic event such as Covid.
“The Children” is set in a remote cottage on the coast of England where Rose arrives to seemingly casually visit her married friends Hazel and Robin, and rummage through the good old times. The three worked as part of a team of nuclear scientists at a nearby nuclear plant where there had recently been a meltdown.
The interplay between these three characters has depth, humor, envy and love—all the ingredients of human relationships. Then they are placed in an extreme, unthinkable, once in a lifetime position with equally unthinkable moral and human options and consequences. They are adults and children, they are human and inhuman, they are playful and vicious, they are … mortal, fallible and not. The layers of complexity of both the situation and the personal choices facing all three characters are remarkably written.
Kirkwood is a young woman with a remarkable sense of humanity and the world around her. She has written for television and film, including for several well-known TV series, including “Skins” and “Succession.”
In 2019, the world premiere of “The Children,” staged in 2016, was named by The Guardian as the third best production of the 21st century
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