What's THE CHILDREN All About? The Broadway-Bound Company Explains!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Following a critically acclaimed London-run, Lucy Kirkwood's new play, The Children, is coming to Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

where it will open on December 12th, and we drop by the rehearsal room to meet the company

How did you come about with the idea to tell the story through these three people? Well, first of all, I was really intent on doing it in that way

because I think that's what we come to see, we come to see human behaviour. and I struggled for a really long time to find the form for it

and then there was an incident in Japan in 2011 which was the Fukushima nuclear meltdown

which you guys might be aware of but there was an earthquake at sea and a tidal wave and that caused a flood through a nuclear power station

which caused a horrific shutdown, massive ecological disaster and in the sort of fallout of that and the things that came out of that

it was a very rare moment, I'm a very slow my process, my internal metronome

is quite slow and it was a rare occasion of just seeing these

three people and understanding what their dramatic structure was and how we

could use these three characters to look at this issue. When I first read the play, the

first thing that hits you is it's extremely funny. By about page ten

you've laughed out loud three times. So that's one of the wonderful things about it is that the seriousness of the play and its debate

about responsibility totally creeps up on you through these wonderful eccentric human complex

characters who are a joy to spend an evening with. London audiences have fallen in love with this

play already what was it like just listening to the way and the dialogue this play started with how people should deal with this subject It was really gratifying how charmed by the people they were

and held by the relationships and the complexity of that. And that means that by the time you get to the sort of heavy end of the play, if you like

you are completely on board with these people and rooting for them

as they slug it out, in a way, over how best they can kind of take responsibility

for themselves, for their children, for the world. I think the very first thing was that it was a complete page-turner

I mean, when you say, oh, it's about three nuclear physicists, you know, you can immediately feel people..

But no, it's completely personable. And when I read it, it was a page-turner

I kept thinking, oh, my God, what's going to happen next? because in actual fact, that is the issue

But it's also about these three people who've known each other a very long time

and Rose, my character, comes back into their lives and then actually is a catalyst and confronts them with many things

Personal issues, which is what people are more often than not really interested in

We're all interested in personal issues, aren't we? And then, of course, there is the thing about climate change and nuclear energy

which everybody is still interested in. They may feel a bit daunted

And it's like the title, The Children, I think is very much based on Lucy thinking that

in general, by and large, we're all children. We offload responsibility onto other people

We hope that they'll sort it out for us. And as we know, they do, they don't

But this one it these people are of a certain age They lived a life and now they coming back and thinking what can we put in what can we do and yes and how can we make change and help and help the younger generation

there's a lot of humour in it she writes very witty parts for us

and it's wonderful to play and it's a real, it's sort of like music

you really have to come in so we're all playing off each other

and it's wonderful that we all get on so well and we all hear and appreciate each other

It's fantastic to be on the stage with Francesca and Ron. It's really great

It's such a powerful piece. What can you tell us about who you play without giving anything away

It's quite hard because we don't want to spoil the thing. Well, I play Hazel, who was a nuclear scientist working at a nuclear plant on the coast of East England

And I'm married to Robin, who is played by Ron. They've retired from that and now run a farm, but something's happened in the vicinity

And we suddenly, one night, we get a stranger arrive, Rose, who used to work at the nuclear plant with us

And we don't know why she's arrived. And this relationship between the three of them is about all that It very funny too And that I love yeah That another thing about lucy how she managed to make something very funny very moving hopefully and and important you know frightening

it's been a year since we did it um we're a year older things have happened in the world

in that year um and just thinking back on it so we could do that and we're sort of taking into

account that it's an American audience maybe so we've tweaked the play a bit, Lucy's there

which is fantastic that Lucy's around so she's improving it as well, maybe you could say that

instead of that and we get excited because oh yes that's even better and a few tweaks of

references, cultural references to that so without making the play American it's just

so that people will understand what the references are. What are you looking forward to the most with being here on Broadway

with this beautiful play? I'm looking forward to the response it gets

What are you hoping audiences here in the United States take away from your play

I think I'm really concerned that they don't feel lectured at

because I don't like going to the theatre and feeling lectured at and I think it's not the purpose of theatre

It's the purpose of theatre to explore the human condition. So what I hope is they feel that the human condition was explored

in a way that they recognise and in ways that surprises them

and is painful and joyful and entertaining and that the story of these three people sort of lodges in their brain

in a way that will play out over the coming months and they'll just think of them in certain moments

Thank you