The Children at Fountain Theatre

The Children

Fountain Theatre
5060 Fountain Avenue Hollywood

The Los Angeles premiere of Lucy Kirkwood's funny and astonishing Tony-nominated The Children is a taut and disquieting thriller about responsibility, reparation and what one generation owes the next. With the outside world in utter chaos following a devastating environmental disaster, two retired nuclear engineers live a quiet life in a remote cottage on the lonely British coast - until a surprise visit from a former colleague upends the couple's equilibrium and trust.

Thru - Jan 23, 2022

Price: $25 - $45

Show Type: Comedy/Drama

Box Office: 323-663-1525

www.FountainTheatre.com

The Children Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Los Angeles Times - Recommended

"...What Kirkwood excels at is creating characters that audiences want to learn more about. We hang on to every word in Hazel and Rose's chipped conversation to better understand not only the fraught situation they're living through but also to get a handle on the tensions bubbling up from their mutual past."

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- Charles McNulty

Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended

"...At its best The Children interrogates the danger of taking the short view on emergencies with no expiration date. If we have to die, Kirkwood implies, we should also irreversibly own our mistakes. Three Los Angeles treasures (Bottitta, Huffman, Knight) richly explore and exploit the tangled pain of three too-tested friends. The dark humor - handled with a theatrical reality rarely seen in L.A. house by director Simon Levy - enhances the looming lessons Kirkwood delivers. Levy helps us forget that the one-act is lumbered with verbal exposition, and smooths out the "problem play" areas by heightening the motivational behavior from his thrilling thespians. It may have taken some time to feel the unseen children in The Children, but the journey is rich and highly recommended."

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- Tony Frankel

Stage Scene LA - Not Recommended

"...There’s nothing preachy about The Children. There’s nothing inauthentic about its dialog. There’s even occasional laughter amidst the darkness. But when all is said and done, it just wasn’t for me.

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- Steven Stanley

On Stage Los Angeles - Recommended

"...Lucy Kirkwood's three character play has a tinge of Albee: secrets and lies, hard feelings, an affair that is telegraphed by Rose's unusual familiarity with the cottage. She arrives with an offer for Hazel and Robin to step up to service... and duty. Who lives and who dies? Who cares enough to wade in and who stays behind? The ethics of responsibility and considering "The Children" lies at its core. The play makes each of us ask ourselves what would we do? What would I do, if I could save the children?"

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Gia on the Move - Somewhat Recommended

"...British playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s THE CHILDREN is in one way a thoughtful play about climate change and the moral responsibilities we face in confronting it. It’s also a too lengthy melodrama whose secrets are at once too evident and too slowly revealed in their entirety. The play premiered in London in 2016 and later moved to Broadway with the original cast under the direction of James Macdonald. A new local production, directed by Simon Levy, is now running at The Fountain Theatre through January 23, 2022. It’s a solid choice from a socially relevant standpoint, but the execution, as of press night, needs finessing."

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- Deborah Klugman

The Children at Fountain Theatre

The Children

The Children Reviews

Los Angeles Times - Recommended

Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended

Stage Scene LA - Not Recommended

On Stage Los Angeles - Recommended

Gia on the Move - Somewhat Recommended

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