Declan Conlon and Meera Syal in The Children [Helen Maybank]

LUCY Kirkwood’s The Children opens with Rose (Kerry Fox) dripping blood from her nose and down her top. She’s visiting Hazel (Meera Syal), an old friend and colleague at her rundown cottage on the East coast of England. In their 60s, they were once nuclear engineers at the local power station, which is now leaking radiation.

When Hazel’s husband Robin (Declan Conlon) joins them, we learn that the couple have survived a catastrophe and live on the edge of a radiation exclusion zone.

Former tensions simmer between Hazel and Rose as Robin cracks open his homemade parsnip wine, and uncomfortable truths come to light. Rose has a startling proposition for the pair, testing what they are willing to sacrifice for the next generation – the eponymous children – despite not being a parent herself.

Fox and Syal capture the one-upmanship of former rivals as well as a mutual resignation. Conlon suggests the charm of a man used to getting his own way, though his powers of persuasion are fading.

Rachel O’Riordan’s evocative revival teases out the various discords between the trio, and this 10th anniversary production feels timely as we take stock of the summer’s global heat and environmental disasters.

Gary McCann’s inventive set has a naturalistic kitchen interior nestled inside a gigantic chamber representing the nuclear plant that casts a shadow over all their lives.

It’s a terrific story for our times. The pace occasionally lags as we learn about the characters’ shared past, but it’s a joy to see a cast of this calibre outside the West End.

Until October 3
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