There aren’t many plays out there like The Children, which manages to go from unassuming domestic beginnings to questions of huge existential weight in the space of less than two hours.
All this with just three characters and one low-key setting in a countryside cottage kitchen.
Retired nuclear scientist Hazel (Irene Macdougall) lives here with her husband Robin (Barrie Hunter), and their old colleague Rose (Emily Winter) has unexpectedly come to visit.
Robin is out tending the cows in the field and will be home soon, so the women catch up, but it soon becomes clear things aren’t right.
Along the coast, a nuclear accident has recently taken place at the plant where all three used to work, and Robin has to go into the exclusion zone to get to the cows.
Meanwhile, Rose’s visit isn’t a social one. Amid the decades-long hurt of her past relationship with Robin, she’s concealing bad news and a dreadful proposal.
Dundee Rep’s artistic director Andrew Panton has been trying to get the rights to Lucy Kirkwood’s play since it was first performed in London in 2016.
He’s had to wait while it was a huge hit on Broadway the following year, and then for theatre to try and emerge from the pandemic.
Asks powerful questions
What we’ve all been through in the last two years only adds to the intensity of The Children, though, as it faces us with powerful questions about the purpose of life and what we leave behind to the next generation.
It’s easy to see why Panton wanted to stage this Tony Award-nominated work, because it has everything you might need from a drama in one package.
The three performances are crucially excellent, and they give Kirkwood’s words exactly the right weight needed.
There’s a lot of humour here, of the kind which comes from perfectly natural conversation, and the misunderstanding and sparring which goes with it.
A gripping thriller
There’s plenty of raw truthfulness too. About being a parent – Hazel and Robin struggle with how dependent their adult eldest daughter is – and about being older and facing down the remaining years of your life, whether you live in doomed comfort or try to face up to past mistakes and responsibilities.
It’s also, more than anything, a gripping thriller which unfolds in such a way that you won’t want to turn away for an hour and ten minutes.
The play itself is already proven to be excellent, but the Rep Ensemble’s production does it justice and more.
The Children is at Dundee Rep Theatre until Saturday March 19. www.dundeerep.co.uk
