Over 40 years and an “old friend” seems to have washed onto your door steps. A surprise for sure that is going to bring about some heavy punches of revelation. The Children by Lucy Kirkwood is a mingling of old friendships, crossed lines, environmental disasters and I would even say some blind facts.
Hazel and Robin live a quiet life. After the earthquakes and tsunami, they have learned to alter their lives and move with ease. They know to limit their electrical use. They learned to manage their meals. Their quiet lives seem to be well managed until Rose shows up unannounced and that’s when secrets are spilled, and the revelations go deep.
First, you notice that the relationship between Hazel and Rose are strained. Hazel is trying to catch up but she’s very uneasy. Her interactions are dry. She’s hospitable but almost in a way that is more obligatory and not out of love. If one of my college friends had shown up, we would have had an amazing reunion of sorts. Not the case here with Hazel and Rose. First, Hazel hits Rose in the nose. In her defense she wasn’t aware that Rose was even in the house. She tries to make things right offering to help clean her up a bit. I knew in the way they moved that something was off, and I couldn’t quite get it. They catch up and Rose wants to know a lot about their oldest. Hazel is guarded about her oldest daughter’s troubles.
Robin comes home after the catch up and awkwardness and I thought to myself I saw a switch in how Robin was acting towards Rose. He seemed to cordial. My suspensions wereconfirmed when Hazel left the room and he and Rose embraced. I was sitting in my sit thinking this had to be some messed up reason that they were too comfortable and crossing the line of Hazel and Robin’s marriage. There was history. Old flames who had reunited and I wondered if Rose coming back was to scoop up the man she might have felt got away. They were hugging and kissing way too tight for my liking. This explains Hazel’s ability to catch up with Rose earlier. They weren’t full on friends. They were like fremies. I don’t think I have any that I know of in my own circle and none that I am aware of that had a past relationship with my husband that could ever pull up and visit on a whelm.
It’s easy to note that Hazel, Rose, and Robin worked together in the plant many moons ago. They would even say were responsible for the core meltdown. Once the spilling of the old flames started to unravel so did other secrets too. This play has it all. It gets extremely serious when Rose comes in with her own plot twist. Should they make it right for the younger ones behind them? Is this a suicide mission? You already see the down side to the core meltdown in Rose and Robin. I find it interesting that and this could just be because I am married Robin willingly gives information to Rose that he hadn’t shared with his wife. I peeped how even with the years separating them he is very open with her in ways he can’t give Hazel.
Careful Hazel seems to be the wife of convenience. I hate to describe her that way, but it seems like responsibility led them into their partnership. They seem to flow more on a guarded sense of marriage. It has worked but you see the loop holes the second Rose showed up. No one should be able to expose loops in a marriage the way its unraveling. Also, Robin’s anger is an issue too. Hes sitting between the woman he’s married to and the one he “once” loved, and his mouth is extremely fluid. I will also point out that this play has strong language so no one under the age of 13 should be in the audience. My mom used to tell me that a man’s anger elevates when he’s messing around or has his emotions tied to another.
Here are my take away without giving away the ending:
Life is always a circle. What you do in the past has a way of boomeranging back to you.
Make decisions you can live with and be able to deal with the consequences of those decisions
Fall in love with the one you love not the safe one. Love doesn’t die. It doesn’t go away. You can’t simply move on as people would like to make you think
Let grown kids fall sometimes. I am a mother I get that I have reached that stage, but I had examples of allowing kids to fall and figure some things out. You can’t do it all for your kids and expect them to thrive.
I had a great time as usual. This play although has its seriousness it is hilarious. I love the energy between the actors. As always People’s Light did a wonderful job bringing this production to light. It has a lot of humor even some dry humor because I found myself laughing at times when others might not have caught on to a side dig. I also love how welcoming People Light’s staff are. Not even with me but with others.
One of the highlights that People’s Light has the new Smart Caption Glasses. Smart Caption Glasses provide customizable in-line captioning of the play’s text within smart glasses. This is a great partnership with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University and the National Theatre of Great Britain. People’s Light is the only theatre in United States to have this amazing technology bringing theatre to all audiences and meeting the needs of the patrons at the same time.
You can get your tickets by going to www.peopleslight.org
Remember there are tickets available as group sales, dinner and a show sale, brunch and matinee sales, after show actor talks, etc.
People’s Light is a theatre that cares about its patrons and I love being in their presence. Thank you, People’s Light, for having me. Thank you, Carrie Gorn, as well. I can’t wait for the next production.
