REVIEW: SpeakEasy Stage Company’s intriguing ‘The Children’ explores resilience and buried secrets
What would you do in the face of a disaster?
Under the roof of a shabby and antiquated seaside English cottage, Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children looks into the lives of three brilliant and possibly doomed people that may be more connected than they seem. Not without its dark sense of humor and charm, The Children is a gripping exploration into the meaning of survival in a crumbling landscape and what happens next has never been more important.
Paula Plum, Karen MacDonald, and Tyrees Allen in SpeakEasy Stage’s production. Photo by Maggie Hall Photography
Directed with profound insight by Bryn Boice, SpeakEasy Stage Company recently had to discontinue the remaining performances of The Children at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts due to COVID-19 concerns. This show contained adult themes and some smoking onstage. Click here to learn about the remaining shows of SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 2020 season.
Paula Plum as Hazel chillingly recalls the disaster, “It looked like the sea was boiling milk and it just kept boiling and boiling.” Married couple Hazel and Robin face day-to- day life in the aftermath of a disaster. With few resources, they attempt to build a new life when an old friend, one that Hazel thought was dead, arrives unexpectedly.
Technical Director Taylor Hansen and Master Electrician Becky Marsh launched some incredible special effects built into the stage. Rachel Padula-Shufelt’s colorful costumes flourish against Cristina Todesco’s bleak scenic design while lighting designer Jeff Adelberg and David Remedios’s sound design skillfully complete the show’s haunting seaside solitude.
The Children is steeped in as much looming sadness as engaging humor. That is in no small part due to its three stellar actors and sharp script that swings from humor to tragic in a single quip.
With a thick, Yorkshire accent, Paula Plum embodies low key, practical, and increasing complex Hazel. Simply dressed in overalls and a turtleneck, Plum is as capable of leveling a room with her eyes as she is with her dry wit. Plum seems to relish cynical and stealthy characters behind a seemingly ordinary facade and Hazel holds her own surprises. She reconnects unexpectedly with enigmatic, free-spirited, and one-time confidant Rose, portrayed with gumption and gall by Karen MacDonald. Watching Plum and MacDonald spar and interact with each other is like watching a tense chess match where you are anxious to find out who will make the next move. They share stories, philosophize, and trade smiles while wondering what kind of secret the other one is hiding.
Having last portrayed Pops in SpeakEasy Stage’s critically-acclaimed Between Riverside and Crazy, Tyrees Allen is a charismatic and often fun loving presence as Robin, Hazel’s dairy farmer husband. Allen and Plum have a seemingly effortless chemistry with an even mix of irritability and adoration illustrated in old married couples. A man of stubbornness and solutions, Allen’s seemingly carefree attitude cuts through Plum and MacDonald’s building tension before he creates some of his own. The deliberate unfolding of this story occurs in sharp, sequential pieces with hardly time to digest the last big revelation before the next one is unveiled.
Tyrees Allen, Paula Plum, and Karen MacDonald in SpeakEasy Stage Company’s ‘The Children’ Photo by Maggie Hall Photography
So why is this production called The Children? While Hazel is grounded by her three children, Rose is single and childless. Children are explored in multifaceted ways whether referring to Hazel’s children, the community children, the things we learn from children, and the things we wish we knew as children growing up. However, life begins and ends with children in this production and the very foundation in what holds them together is also what can tear them apart.
Click here to learn more about The Children and the remaining shows of SpeakEasy Stage Company’s season. Click here to learn about auditions, support, and how to get involved with SpeakEasy Stage Company.
