The fate in the hands of the parents
Emma Vilarasau, Mercè Aranega i Jordi Boixaderas. David Selvas has gathered these three veteran and prestigious performers of the Catalan theater to lift The childrenthe work of the British Lucy Kirkwood which places us in front of a nuclear emergency and in the hands of three retired physicists who will have a lot to say. “It was the dream casting”, says the director, delighted. “They are the three names I thought of immediately and all three were delighted with the project. In addition, they are eager, they are eager to work together.”
If Vilarasau, when he did his very personal Lali Symonclaimed prominence for women over 50 in the theatre, here he found it. “He’s a textasso”, says Selvas. “And for veteran actors who so often complain, rightly so, that they have few roles. Here are three very grateful characters: we are not talking about grandparents picking up the grandchildren from school, residual people, as are usually the roles that give people a little older. No. These are nuclear physicists, they are topthey have had very powerful jobs”. In fact, they are people who are considering saving the world. Nothing more, nothing less. A challenge as transcendent as it is realistic.
A The childrenHazel and Robin are a couple of retired scientists who live quietly, isolated from the world, in the English countryside, near the nuclear power plant where they have worked all their lives and where there has now been an accident. Immediately, Rose appears, an old colleague from the headquarters who they had not heard from for decades. His arrival will awaken seemingly forgotten tensions and, above all, raise a crucial dilemma in the wake of the accident: is it necessary to sacrifice oneself for the good of humanity?
Kirkwood wrote the play in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, and a news story about retirees from the same plant who went into the damaged building, sacrificing their lives to try to minimize—to the extent possible, since we are talking about a nuclear accident—the damage. In the background is the debate about what world we will leave to our children and about what ethical responsibilities we should assume. “The work has epic touches, mystical echoes, but it is hyperrealistic. It happens in real time, an hour and a half, without ellipsis or flashbacks“, points out Selvas. “And he has the sense of humor of intelligent people. Kirkwood is a very socially involved woman, a feminist, and she wants to give a touch of attention. Basically, I think the author is optimistic: she is saying that we still have time, but that, above all, we must take responsibility.”
Marta Gil Polo directed a version (Our children) at the Academy Theater in 2022, also with veteran performers: Albert Perez, Isabelle Bres i Maria Pau Pigem.
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