The Children (2017)

Lucy Kirkwood’s brilliant, intellectually fierce drama 'The Children' arrived at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in 2017 as an acclaimed highlight of the Manhattan Theatre Club season, transferring directly from its hit West End run. Set inside an isolated, decaying cottage on the English coast in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic nuclear power plant meltdown, the claustrophobic plot tracks two retired nuclear scientists whose quiet, radiation-monitored lives are upended by the uninvited arrival of an old colleague who delivers an ethically complex, terrifying request. Directed by James Macdonald, the production starred the original West End cast: Francesca Annis, Ron Cook, and Deborah Findlay.