The Children NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (362)
See it if You do not mind a heavy, slightly depressing evening and are ready for a different type of interesting story than usual.
Don't see it if You prefer to be entertained with more upbeat topics than nuclear disasters or aging.
See it if if you like a well made, thought provoking new British play on what it means to be responsible. Superbly acted, directed, and designed.
Don't see it if you don't like slower more traditional plays. This does take a while to really get going.
See it if You like a good English drama with humor, irony and good cast
Don't see it if You want something upbeat.
See it if You like edgy dramas that keep you involved in uncovering the plot, as the actors introduce bits and pieces of their lives.
Don't see it if You cannot sit for 1 hour and 50 minutes. Do not like conversational dramas. Expect action-packed scenes. Fear impending disasters. Read more
See it if you like good drama, think about the future with nuclear power (meltdowns) and empathize with the dimensions of human relationships
Don't see it if you don't like solid dramas with small casts, or don't want to think about nuclear power meltdowns and what it means for future generations
See it if you like theatre about contemporary issues, that makes you think.
Don't see it if you prefer big, flashy productions or light comedy. There are funny moments, but it is no comedy. Read more
See it if Mixing the personal & the topical Kirkwood's climate change drama is both captivating & dull Complex performances help alleviate talkiness
Don't see it if Often progresses at a glacial pace w/echoes of Churchill straining to be heard but eventually hits the mark MacDonald's direction top notch
See it if the idea of life after a nuclear meltdown intrigues you. The characters are complex and the staging enhances the foreboding tone.
Don't see it if you prefer an uplifting show with a happy ending.
Critic Reviews (48)
"Lucy Kirkland has penned theater for our time...Kirkwood’s play rivets attention and raises questions sure to elicit lively discussion. Except for a thoroughly unnecessary passage about the vicissitudes of the cottage toilet, the piece is beautifully crafted...Acting is terrific...Macdonald has kept this multilayered play accessible and human, relegating philosophical issues to after the curtain falls."
Read more
“A relevant and trenchant play that uses the dystopian reality of nuclear meltdown as an impetus for exploring big questions on an intimate scale...Kirkwood insightfully devises rich and fascinating characters whose diverging worldviews reflect the paradoxes that come with personal responsibility, maturity, and eventual death...The imagery of the play is stark and memorable...An acclaimed transfer from London, the performances are pitch-perfect.”
Read more
"Full of neat, jolting visual surprises…The audience delights in Kirkwood’s delight for language…You may well be listening to a delightful radio play…The true test of sitting and watching a play with no intermission for close to two hours is that you want to follow Hazel, Rose, and Robin to where they are going, to listen to them more. But Kirkwood has imagined the right end for them, right before a far more profound end presents itself.”
Read more
"A very good play with very good performances and a very good production design and very good direction, all working together to give you that delicious feeling of being in very good hands...The three actors couldn’t be in more sync if they were a string quartet that had spent a lifetime perfecting their focus and interplay...How easy all involved make a fresh, compelling drama like this seem."
Read more
“A breath of fresh air in this winter season...This fiercely taut drama...Brilliantly written by Olivier Award winner Kirkwood, who has created three complex characters who are genuine and unpredictable...Despite its title, ‘The Children’ is the most adult show in NYC right now, a marvelously resonant, intelligent, and engaging play that continually defies expectations as the plot twists and turns while something threatening hangs just past the horizon.”
Read more
"The three sexagenarians go on trying to keep up appearances in typically English middle-class style as the tension builds under James Macdonald’s taut direction...
Their clash here symbolizes a larger debate about the privilege of the postwar generation...Kirkwood’s play provocatively asks whether such fortunate golden-agers might not consider sacrificing themselves for the sake of the young. That modest proposal ought to make a few waves on Broadway."
Read more
“An all-too-true cautionary tale…Kirkwood’s thoughtful drama…Macdonald directs with a slow and steady build, subtly unfolding the friends' past relationship...Not surprisingly, with such laudable performers, the characters are well-nuanced and distinctively portrayed…Even with its occasional sluggish moments and some difficulty understanding the coastal English dialect, ‘The Children’ has a fearful universality that lingers in the mind.”
Read more
"Ms. Kirkwood's dialogue is sharp, funny, and somewhat spare, preferring suggestion over exposition...There is an overwhelming feeling of enervation, the same feeling one gets from reading 'The Waste Land.'"
Read more