THEATRE
by Lucy Kirkwood, Melbourne
Theatre Company with STC
Southbank
Theatre, The Sumner, until March 10, 2018
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:****
Review also published in Herald Sun Arts / Lifestyle on Thursday Feb 15, 2018. KH
L-R: Sarah Peirse, Pamela Rabe, William Zappa. |
How do you
live a carefully planned, comfortable, serene and healthy retirement when you
are forced to live on the edge of a Fukushima-like nuclear catastrophe?
In Lucy Kirkwood’s
confronting and unsettling play, The Children, married couple Hazel (Pamela
Rabe) and Robin (William Zappa), two retired nuclear physicists who used to work
at the nearby nuclear plant, have had to move to their isolated cottage on the
English coast where they survive on ‘less’: less food, less electricity, less
everything.
When Rose
(Sarah Peirse), their old friend and fellow physicist, arrives unexpectedly and
uninvited, the three must confront not only their shared past, but also a grim
future and a challenging, ethical dilemma.
Kirkwood’s witty,
pithy dialogue challenges our views of ageing, social responsibility, and the
ethical issue of bringing children into a dangerous world.
Set in a realistic,
farmhouse kitchen (design,
Elizabeth Gadsby), Sarah Goode’s compelling, naturalistic production boasts an
exceptional cast of three of Australia’s finest actors in Rabe, Peirse and
Zappa.
Rabe is brisk
and blunt as the sensible, active, and always busy Hazel, whose life is turned
upside down by the nuclear disaster, but who is even more distressed and
destabilised by Rose’s sudden arrival after decades of absence.
Zappa brings
a touch of playful, relaxed blokiness to Robin, her husband, but he later
shifts into a darker state of vulnerability and quiet desperation.
Peirse, as
Rose, is the grit in their well-oiled machine, and her wild edginess and
chaotic lifestyle bring a sense of danger that leads to the startling but
inevitable reason for her visit. No spoilers here.
In a contemporary
world unable to successfully resolve most natural and man-made disasters,
Kirkwood’s play is a potent reminder that our past is unchangeable, our present
is fragile and our future riddled with uncertainty.
By Kate Herbert
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