Next Act’s Drama of Delicately Interconnected Intricacies

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Photo by Michael Brosilow

Next Act Theatre's 'The Children'

Mary MacDonald Kerr and Shariba Rivers in Next Act Theatre's 'The Children'

A couple of people are talking. They haven’t seen each other in a long time. Rose’s nose is bleeding. That’s because Hazel punched her. To be fair, though, Rose did kind of show-up out of nowhere. And Hazel thought Rose was dead, so it was kind of a natural reaction in the opening moments of The Children. An impressively layered production of playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s contemporary drama makes its way to the stage with Next Act Theatre at winter’s end.  

Director Marie Kohler brings together a variety of intricate, little moments between Mary MacDonald Kerr as Hazel, her husband (played by Brian Mani) and Shariba Rivers in the role of Rose. Mani and Kerr have a deliciously comfortable rapport between them that illuminates relations between two characters who have known each other for years. The deeper themes covered in Kirkwood’s script cascade out from the core of a breathtakingly well-rendered study of stress, motion and emotion between three people who had managed to survive the disaster at the nuclear power plant where they all worked.  

Rose and her husband Robin live in a cabin just outside the edge of an area contaminated by the disaster of a nuclear power plant. They worked there some time ago. (So did Rose.) What starts-off as a simple social meeting turns out to be something more in a deeply engaging drama about the damage we leave behind in the course of a lifetime. Scenic designer Jeffrey D. Kmiec has managed some rather ingenious bits of characterization around the edges of the action with a remote cabin set that feels remarkably domestic, organic and lived-in. 

Next Act Theatre’s production of The Children runs through March 9 at Next Act’s space on 255 S. Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit Next Act online.