Reaching Across Generations in Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children
What are we doing to take care of one another and our planet across generations? Lucy Kirkwood’s new play The Children asks exactly that.
The plot of The Children follows two retired nuclear physicists, Robin and Hazel, who have cobbled together a functional, if challenging life after the nearby nuclear power station they engineered melts down. When Rose, an old friend and former colleague, shows up with a frightening request, the past and future collide in profoundly personal and ethical ways, as they grapple with the responsibility they owe to the environment, and what, if anything, one generation owes to the next.
The Children by Lucy Kirkwood. Artwork by Aki Ruiz.
There is an ongoing conversation around what it means to identify with your generation. From Gen Z to Baby Boomer, there seems to be an endless stream of stereotypes and presumptions about each generation’s priorities and behaviors. Are Millenials and Gen Z doomed, or are they champions of environmental and social activism? Do Boomers care what they left behind, or is their wisdom underappreciated? Why do we keep forgetting about Gen X? What are we all doing to make the world a better place, and more importantly, why should we care?
HIGHLIGHT NIGHTS at Artists Repertory Theatre explore generational responsibility. Artwork by Aki Ruiz.
Artists Repertory Theatre will be making space for these questions and conversations during their spring run of The Children through their new Highlight Night programming. Highlight Nights, designed to create community around themes and identities explored throughout each season, aim to connect art, artists, and audiences at ART from a place of shared experience and interest.
Artists Rep’s run of The Children will present two distinct yet connected Highlight Nights, focusing on how we treat one another across generations, and the responsibilities we have to leave the world a better place. The first, GENERATIONS 1: Science & the Environment on April 29th, will feature a panel on the ethics of science and our responsibility to our planet, and the second, GENERATIONS 2: Culture & Identity on May 8th, will offer a community conversation around our moral responsibility to one another across generations.
Life coming back at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Photo provided by Pixabay under Creative Commons licensing.
The Children by Lucy Kirkwood, directed by Luan Schooler, runs April 9 - May 15 in the Ellyn Bye Studio at Portland Center Stage. To reserve tickets, visit https://artistsrep.org/performance/the-children/ or contact [email protected] for more information.
