{"id":328914,"date":"2025-08-08T21:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328914\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T21:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:48:14","slug":"the-children-all-edinburgh-theatre-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328914\/","title":{"rendered":"The Children : All Edinburgh Theatre.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 \u00a0 \u00a0 Contemplative<\/a><\/p>\n

Royal Scots Club (Venue 241): Mon 4 Aug \u2013 Sat 9 Aug 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar<\/p>\n

Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group\u2019s late show at the Royal Scots Club, Lucy Kirkwood\u2019s The Children, is a bleak and thoughtful look at everyday life in the wake of a disaster, and the choices its survivors must make.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening in the ordinary-looking home of sexagenarian couple Hazel (Wendy Mathison) and Robin (Richard Godden), the lights come up on Rose (Hilary Spiers), an old friend of a similar age who has dropped in. \u201cHow are the children?\u201d she asks, attempting to stem the nosebleed that has strained her blouse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wendy Mathison, Richard Godden and Hilary Spiers in The Children. Pic Minny Fletcher-Watson<\/p>\n

Hazel and Rose exchange small talk and banter, including discussion of Hazel and Robin\u2019s children whom, she says, \u201cwe haven\u2019t seen since the disaster, of course.\u201d This dropped in casually into the conversation, Kirkwood begins to create the context of the world of the play, where it transpires a disaster has taken place: a one in ten million fault sequence; a wave, heralded by shaking eggs; a meltdown at the nearby power station.<\/p>\n

Just outside the exclusion zone, this trio of nuclear physicists who helped build the power station reunite after nearly forty years\u2014 or so Hazel thinks. As the play progresses, the details of their pasts are revealed, their tangled interpersonal threads, and the decision each will take when given the chance to make the power station safe for future generations.<\/p>\n

David Grimes\u2019s direction (assisted by Amy Dallas) of The Children is strong and specific, making full use of the set by Michael Mulligan and Richard Spiers, integrating the inherent interest of the Hepburn Suite\u2019s levels. Props by Gillian Burnett fill out the world of the semi-apocalyptic home, familiar and strange at once.<\/p>\n

The dialogue clips along at the pace of natural conversation, with hints of No\u00ebl Coward in both the writing and delivery. It\u2019s a script peppered with humour amid the drama (\u201cthis is how it starts, the slow descent into the coffin, it starts with two black hairs on your chin!\u201d), which its performers relish without hamming it up.<\/p>\n

a superb trio<\/p>\n

Mathison, Godden, and Spiers are a superb trio, pinging off each other through the rapid portions of the show and earning every pause they take. Each clearly communicates the journey their characters have taken through this real-time piece, and the weight of what they must face after the curtain goes down. The Children is a showcase for elder actors who more often than not only find smaller parts written for them, and EGTG\u2019s cast have risen to the occasion.<\/p>\n

A deeply human play that manages to satisfyingly ask more questions than it answers, The Children is a quietly devastating speculation on events and situations that have, and may again, come to pass.<\/p>\n

Running time: One hour and 40 minutes (no interval).<\/strong>
Royal Scots Club (The Hepburn Suite)<\/strong>, 29-31 Abercromby Place, EH3 6QE (Venue 241).
Mon 4 \u2013 Sat 9 August 2025.
Daily: 8.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

EGTG website: www.theegtg.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook: @edingrads<\/a><\/strong>
Instagram: @edingrads<\/a><\/strong>
X: @TheGrads<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

Tags: <\/strong> #EdFringe<\/a>, Amateurs<\/a>, Amy Dallas<\/a>, David Grimes<\/a>, EdFringe 2025<\/a>, Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group<\/a>, Gillian Burnett<\/a>, Hilary Spiers<\/a>, Lucy Kirkwood<\/a>, Made In Edinburgh<\/a>, Michael Mulligan<\/a>, Rebecca Mahar<\/a>, Review<\/a>, Richard Godden<\/a>, Richard Spiers<\/a>, Royal Scots Club<\/a>, The Children<\/a>, Theatre<\/a>, Wendy Mathison<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t