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Regional Reviews: St. Louis The Children Also see Richard's reviews of Deathtrap, The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body, and A Doll's House, Part 2
Jennie Brick directs the show's elegant chaos of cross-talk and two-faced relationships with a great cast at the Union Avenue Christian Church. Bethany Barr is highly original as the ditzy and sputtering Hazel, a retired scientist, when her old friend Rose (the always great Jenni Ryan) comes back into her life, following a tsunami like the one in Japan in 2011. And Tom Kopp is 100% spontaneous and polished as Hazel's charming, soulful husband Robin. Before the script's mid-point plot pivots, the audience is kept busy trying to sort out this strange new world of physical dislocation and disruption, which presages the changes within the trio on stage as well. Each of the characters has to force an extremely awkward confrontation on the other two, as altruism locks horns with the occasional wretchedness of long-term relationships. The play first opened in London in 2016 before moving to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway a year later. The characters don't even mention their Fukushima-like disaster until ten minutes into the action. It's often just exceedingly bright scientists clowning around like children, till old sore points are revealed. Verbal images of "dirty glitter" in the air help set the mood, along with the occasional bloody nose, as a modern hand-held Geiger counter tells its own undeniable story. The show's echoes of "angry young men" plays are heard as the characters indulge in comical, blistering imaginations of one another's demise. A wistful destruction surrounds them all, even as they plot a vibrant, noble exit. Of course there's dissension, and scoffing at a high-minded scheme, as a wildly idealistic generation plans its final moves. A vibrant dance break, choreographed by Hermione Duane, magically lightens the mood. "One day the whole world will be covered in beautiful little machines that will live forever," Robin says, with grim, stoical wit, contemplating a great sacrifice. "And we'll want to kill ourselves anyway." Of course nobody knows if it's ever going to come to that or not. But when a big nuclear power plant turns impossibly ugly, and only its toxic waste lives on, seemingly forever, you begin to see his point. But Mr. Kopp and the others keep it aloft with jokes and great attitude. The Children becomes a rallying cry for something even more human to rise up within us, to stand within the breach. To say they become symbols in the end, and physical representations of the soul, may be the least extravagant way. Off-stage, the production group behind it all is similarly reborn, after three shows last season had to be canceled. Some of the previous organizers of the West End Players Guild had moved on to other things. But the Guild, ancient by community theatre standards, still fills a unique role in St. Louis theatre: quirky and penetrating and simple in its own deep poetry. So it almost had to come back to life again, one way or another. Further proving, I suppose, that even idealism has a half-life of its own. The Children, produced by the West End Players Guild, runs through February 22, 2026, at Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union Blvd., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.westendplayersguild.org. Cast: Production Staff: |
