A play that delves into how people respond to personal and professional challenges—in this case, a looming environmental one—is being staged at Next Act Theatre in Milwaukee. It’s called The Children.
“It’s set on the eastern shore of Britain in Suffolk. It’s mid August. Fruits and vegetables are around and being eaten,” says the play's director Marie Kohler.
Hazel and Robin live in a little cottage by the sea. Both are nuclear scientists, “Retired, who have been associated with a nuclear power plant which has had an incident, and they are kind of trying to live normal day to day lives. And the surprise factor is an old friend comes who had also worked at the plant and has a rather challenging request,” Kohler says.
The Children is written by British writer Lucy Kirkwood.
“I think she was commissioned to write a play about climate change... And then she was very inspired by reading about what happened in Fukushima (2011) when the elder scientists who were retired decided to go in… and she found that a very moving story. They wanted to spare the young scientists’ longevity and health, which would have been compromised had they gone,” Kohler says.
Kohler says while she cares deeply about environmental issues, initially it was the three characters that attracted her to the play.
“When I saw it, I thought 'Oh this is us, this is me, this is my generation being represented on stage, how fascinating.' And I think this is one of the unusual characteristics of the play,” Kohler says.
Actor Brian Mani plays Robin, a man with foibles.
“I think he’s bored with life and he’s a very human vulnerable person… I think he’s deeply sad until this visitor comes to visit the couple and I think that engages and enlivens him... I think he’s a man who learns something during the play and the audience certainly learns things about him,” Mani says.
The play opens with the visitor asking "how are the children" but Marie Kohler says the audience gradually learns the three adults have growing up to do.
“I researched what the playwright had said about her play and that was one of the things she said. They’re all children in this play and it’s about trying to grow up and hopefully I think they do during the course of the play,” Kohler says. “And of course it throws it open to us as the audience, what can we do in our lives to be more mature, to be more responsible — the things we do, the decisions we make professionally and personally.”
Although its topics are profound, moments of wit and lightheartedness infuse the play.
Kohler calls it British wit and wordplay, “And wordplay sometimes covers over the authentic feelings which are are not being dealt with and bubble up.”
The Children runs through March 9 at Next Act Theatre.
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