NEWS: Full casting announced for Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children

This deft three-hander stars Sally Dexter (Emmerdale, ITV; Viva Forever!, Piccadilly Theatre) as Rose, Caroline Harker (A Touch of Frost, ITV; Middlemarch, BBC; The Sweet Science of Bruising, Southwark Playhouse) as Hazel and Clive Mantle (Casualty and Holby City, BBC:  A Streetcar Named Desire, Crucible Sheffield; Robin of Sherwood, ITV) as Robin.

Lucy Kirkwood’s intimate portrait of relationships contrasted against the epic sweep of a post-apocalyptic world is directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward (Manic Street Creature, Southwark Playhouse; Moonlight & Magnolias, Nottingham Playhouse). Hazel and Robin are nuclear physicists, living out their retirement on the east coast. When old friend Rose visits, her shocking proposal threatens their entire future. This witty and taut play forces us to examine how our life choices affect each other, as well as future generations.

Kirsty Patrick Ward commented:

“I am overjoyed with the incredible cast we have brought together for Lucy Kirkwood’s pertinent, insightful and deeply moving play. To have three such formidable talents engaged on a play of this calibre is every director’s dream, and I cannot wait to see what we will find in the rehearsal room when exploring Lucy’s stirring text. 

“The Children feels more relevant than ever, and with such a company now assembled, we hope and will endeavour to bring something truly special to the mighty Nottingham Playhouse stage.” 

The Children will be produced to Theatre Green Book standards, a set of standards for creating productions sustainably, including that 50% of materials should have had a previous life and 65% of materials should be reused or recycled afterwards. A theatre industry symposium, the Sustainable Productions Summit, will take place on Thursday 4 April at Nottingham Playhouse, ensuring that knowledge gained by the Nottingham Playhouse team through their Green Book productions is shared and passed on.

The Children was the Winner of the 2018 Writer’s Guild for Best Play, received a Tony Award 2018 Best Play nomination and was listed in the Top 3 of The Guardian’s 2019 Best Theatre Shows of the 21st Century.

First produced in 2016 at The Royal Court, The Independent review by Paul Taylor said:

 “Lucy Kirkwood’s new play is a richly suggestive and beautifully written piece of work, provoking questions that will continue to nag and expand in your mind long after the lights have slowly died on its extraordinary final sequence.”