'The Children' review — Lucy Kirkwood's post-apocalyptic drama feels sharper than ever

Read our review of The Children, starring Meera Syal, now in performances at Lyric Hammersmith to 3 October.

We could be in a seaside cottage in Cornwall. There’s a love triangle between three sixtysomethings – one an avid Radio 4 listener – and a wine cellar filled to the brim with homemade wine. But, oh – what’s that Geiger counter doing, easily accessible, in the kitchen drawer? This is Lucy Kirkwood’s 2016 post-apocalyptic disaster drama The Children, directed by Rachel O'Riordan and restaged with a cast who play their roles immaculately.

Retired nuclear scientists Hazel (a brilliant, as ever, Meera Syal) and her husband Robin (Declan Conlon) have lived here since the “disaster” – by all accounts, something resembling an earthquake, tsunami and full-blown nuclear shutdown that turned the sea into “boiling milk”. Hazel spends her days doing yoga, preparing salads and avoiding the exclusion zone, determined to keep living despite the sporadic electricity. Her husband Robin says be damned to it all, returning every day to their old farm to visit a herd of toxic cows. But today, their free-thinking old work colleague Rose (Kerry Fox) has turned up at their door unannounced after 36 years.

At first, you might think she’s here to rekindle her affair with Robin – and boy, do we see some fire between Rose and Conlon. But Rose has bigger fish to fry. After the first section of the play settles into catch-up chit-chat – acutely written by Kirkwood – we’re clued into the real reason for her visit. Hint: it involves asking her old pals to consider their responsibilities to the younger generations, and the role they’ve played in messing the world up in the first place. Basically, big themes.

Originally written in response to the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, you’d expect Kirkwood’s script to feel more like a museum piece than a knotty, topical drama in 2026. But with climate change and the world forever on the brink of crisis, its arguments prick with a renewed, damning sting. With a set designed by Gary McCann that places their home within a cocoon of nuclear equipment, we’re never quite allowed to forget the imminent threat.

Then there’s the eternal issue of children: Rose has none, while Robin and Hazel have four, with their eldest daughter Lauren calling the house to ask even the most basic of things. Is it a parent’s job to force their children to become adults? Maybe the best thing you can actually do is leave them to their own devices, Rose suggests. But can you ever really understand the parental bond if you’ve never had children of your own?

As a trio, Syal, Conlon and Fox have the easy, knowing chemistry of people who have spent years in each other's company. Syal and Conlon slip from insulting each other to moments of real tenderness and need without a second thought, while Fox captures Rose’s lingering lust for Robin – particularly when he lights up a cigarette. When crunch time comes, and Hazel has a decision to make, Syal curls in on herself, almost childlike, and tells stories about how she still longs for her mum. No matter how old we get, we’re still made up of our younger versions – never quite ready to say goodbye to the people we once were.

The Children is at Lyric Hammersmith to 3 October. Book The Children tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: The Children (Photos by Helen Maybanks)