It took a little while to get my head around precisely what was going on here, in what seemed a reasonably normal, if somewhat rundown, front room. References are made to an “exclusion zone”, which appears to have been put in place thanks to some kind of disaster. As Rose (Kerry Fox) pointed out, a nuclear power plant was built next to the sea. This in itself is not exactly unheard of, because such plants use seawater to absorb the heat they generate before discharging it back. But coastline erosion wasn’t factored in when the plant was built, which therefore led to a nuclear meltdown.
The play opens with Rose having sustained a severe nosebleed, the result of being inadvertently struck by former colleague Hazel (Meera Syal), who lives with her husband Robin (Declan Conlon) in a holiday cabin, because, thanks to the aforementioned exclusion zone, they aren’t currently able to enter their main house. Rose had arrived unexpectedly, and Hazel had reason to believe, for reasons unrelated to the nuclear disaster, that she (Rose) had died. Rose and Hazel hadn’t seen each other for decades. And as it transpires, Rose and Robin have been more than acquainted over the intervening years.
A slow burner over ninety minutes, the world inhabited by the three characters is largely recognisable, which isn’t always the way with dystopian plays, some of which can be so other-worldly they are effectively more science-fiction than anything else. Here, there is regular contact with Lauren, the couple’s grown-up daughter (there are three others), and Robin and Hazel are doing their best to maintain some semblance of normality despite the challenges of the exclusion zone.
The dialogue meanders and it takes a while, in that most British way of not jumping straight into the crux of the matter but breaking in gently instead, before Rose reveals what her agenda actually is: with her knowledge of all things nuclear – they were all nuclear engineers – she wishes to make, in conjunction with the others, a personal sacrifice for the greater good. Hazel is conflicted until the last minute of the play, which didn’t turn out to be an anti-nuclear rant, which it could so easily have been, but rather the complexities of life. Loyalty was tested, love and betrayal were present in equal measure, and what people say they did and what they actually did were sometimes markedly different.
Some humour in the dialogue brings comic relief to an otherwise intense narrative, and this intriguing and thoughtful production is highly relevant in the turbulent and uncertain world in which we live.
Review by Chris Omaweng
“Together Hazel and I are going to live forever. On a diet of yoga and yoghurt.”
Hazel and Robin have survived a catastrophe. Living on the edge of a radiation exclusion zone, Hazel still practises her yoga and Robin’s brewing parsnip wine. They are trying to keep going, clinging onto normality.
That is until their old friend Rose knocks on the door. With her she brings old memories, buried secrets – and a proposition. One which tests their loyalty and forces them to confront their debt to the next generation.
Declan Conlon – Robin
Kerry Fox – Rose
Meera Syal – Hazel
Lucy Kirkwood – Writer
Rachel O’Riordan – Director
Gary McCann – Set and Costume Designer
Anna Watson – Lighting Designer
Holly Khan – Sound Designer
Anna Cooper CDG – Casting Director
Lydia Free – Assistant Director
Yarit Dor – Fight and Intimacy Director
Campbell Young Associates – Wigs, Hair and Make-Up
Enric Ortuño – Associate Fight and Intimacy Director
THE CHILDREN
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
2 September to 3 October 2026
