The Santa Paula Theater Center will present Lucy Kirkwood’s THE CHILDREN from February 3rd–March 12th, 2023 on their Mainstage at 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:30 pm on Sundays. THE CHILDREN is the 2018 Tony Award nominee for Best Play, The Writers’ Guild Award winner for Best New Play, and received 3rd place on The Guardian’s “List of the Greatest Theatrical Works since 2000!” Tickets are $24 for Adults and $22 for Seniors, Students and Military and can be purchased online at www.santapaulatheatercenter.org or by calling 805-525-4645 or emailing sptcbox@gmail.com. Tickets are also available at the door the day of the performance for any unsold seats.

THE CHILDREN will be directed by Jessi May Stevenson with Leslie Nichols and Jessi May Stevenson producing. The design staff supporting the production are Joy Gee as Stage Manager, Allan Noel as Sound Designer, Gary Richardson as Lighting Designer, Mike Carnahan as Scenic Designer, Barbara Pedziwiatr as Costumer, Carlita Mead as Props Mistress, and Diego Moreno as tech support.

The cast for THE CHILDREN includes Tracy Hudak as Rose, Leslie Upson as Hazel, and John Webber as Robin.

The Children, by Lucy Kirkwood, is a thrilling, humorous new play that questions the responsibility each generation has for the way it leaves the world. In the wake of a devastating environmental accident, two early retired physicists are quietly living out their days in a cottage on the coast. When an old colleague turns up with a shocking request, the three friends must come to terms with their shared culpability. The Children is a searing pressure cooker about responsibility, guilt, reparation and redemption, but it's also a declaration of love. The extent of sacrifice one is willing to make, not just for one’s own “children,” but for everyone’s children.

Lucy Kirkwood’s astonishing storytelling turns the very large idea of Climate Change into a thrilling narrative that centers around the humans living in it. Brilliantly written, The Children is not an ethics text. It’s a quirky three-character tragicomedy about aging, sexual competition, parenting, and the catastrophic result of certain scientific  “advances” that end up ravaging the planet we call home… and it is actually very funny.

Critics have raved about this new award winning play. Guardian (UK) hails “THE CHILDREN raises profound questions about whether having children sharpens, or diminishes, one’s sense of social responsibility…a genuinely disturbing play: one not simply  about nuclear power but about the heavy price we may pay in the future for the profligacy of the present.” The Independent (London) states ““…a richly suggestive and beautifully written piece of work…Kirkwood is the most rewarding dramatist of her generation.” Time Out London acclaims “THE CHILDREN is tantalizingly hard to define: it is about aging and responsibility…Somewhat menacing, and often funny…What THE CHILDREN is not is a polemic about the oft-cited irresponsibility of baby boomers; instead it rather penetratingly asks what they owe younger generations, exactly.” Travis Michael Holder touts “THE CHILDREN is the best new play to hit our poor maligned cultural desert oasis in a long time, introducing to our shores a new playwriting voice in Lucy Kirkwood that could prove to rival some of the best and most appreciated theatrical wordsmiths of the last century.” 

For more information and to order tickets for THE CHILDREN, visit the Santa Paula Theater Center website at www.santapaulatheatercenter.org. Season tickets also available to purchase! Coming up next we have HOME, I’M DARLING by Laura Wade April 14-May 21, RABBIT HOLE by David Lindsay-Abaire June 23-July 30, CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION by Annie Baker September 1-October 8, and The 39 Steps by a Patrick Barlow November 10-December 17. Proof of vaccination is currently required to attend this production and additional safeguards may be added during the run. Masks are encouraged but not required.