Review: THE CHILDREN at West End Players Guild is Fascinating, Well Directed, and Exquisitely Acted

Before penning this review, I searched for lists of the most well constructed, dialogue driven contemporary plays. The research included a list titled “Best Modern Plays” compiled by the team at StageMilk.com. The plays listed were all written since the turn of the millennium.

The writers at StageMilk’s rundown of the best plays since 2000 included familiar Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning titles. They created a summary of scripts from what looked liked a Who’s Who of well-known contemporary playwrights. The shortlist includes Stephen Kraram's The Humans, Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, Simon Stephens' The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, AND The Children by Lucy Kirkwood.

I knew nothing of Kirkwood and her play The Children prior to settling into my seat at West End Players Guild. Leaving the theater, I was compelled to learn more about Kirkwood and her writing.

The British playwright and screenwriter is renowned for her works about societal issues and social responsibility. Kirkwood is an Olivier winner and a Tony nominee, best known for her plays Chimerica and The Children.

West End Players Guild current production of The Children is a phenomenal staging of Kirkwood’s work. The director, Jennie Brick, and the three actors, Jenni Ryan (Rose), Bethany Barr (Hazel), and Tom Kopp (Robin) are well rehearsed and deliver Kirkwood’s dialogue driven play with exceptional mastery.

The Children tells the story of retired nuclear physicists. The three spent lengthy careers working at a power plant damaged by an earthquake and Tsunami causing a significant nuclear disaster. Kirkwood’s fictional story is based on 2011’s Fukushima nuclear explosion in Japan.

In her play, Married couple Robin and Hazel receive an unexpected visit from the former plant manager who both worked with at the reactor site. She returns questioning what fault they bear for the nuclear accident and what debt they owe to society. As their conversation progresses, intimate details about their personal relationships are also revealed. Rose and the married couple share a complex intimate history that goes well beyond their roles as work peers.

Kirkwood’s verbose script is intelligent, laced with humor, engaging, and absorbing. Brick finds the perfect cadence and rhythm for her actors. Ryan, Barr, and Kopp establish their conversational flow with realistic tempo. There is no doubt the director and actors invested an immense amount of time to ensure organic patter.

Each of their individual portrayals were richly textured and layered with emotion. The only exception to the realism was an unconvincing stage slap. The physical altercation simply looked contrived and didn’t match the actor's intensity with their dialogue. Nitpicky? Yes. But as a captivated, all-in audience member it was a directorial miss, took me out of the moment, and weakened an otherwise spectacular production.

Kirkwood’s play is fascinating and compelling. Her script prompts discussion about corporate responsibility, what accountability an organization’s employees should own, and how tragic circumstances force people to face personal transgressions and the fallout from their poor decisions.

The Children continues at West End Player’s Guild through February 22, 2026. Visit westendplayersguild.org for more information.