Children's Children

Synopsis

Michael and Gordon have been best friends since acting college. Now, 20 years later, Michael is Mr Saturday Night TV but failing actor Gordon is struggling with enormous debts. Meanwhile Gordon s daughter Effie couldn't care less about her Dad's problems - she is far more interested in the film that her cool boyfriend is making and setting up an ecologically sound clothing label. When Gordon asks Michael to lend him a large sum of money it sets in motion a series of events that reveal irreparable cracks in the characters relationships.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 25 May 2012

Matthew Dunster’s spiky, squawky new play, Children’s Children, tracks a friendship of two Geordie drama students, Michael and Gordon, down the years as one becomes an obnoxious celebrity (“Mr Saturday Night” on television) and the other an embittered loser with a wife whose career suddenly takes off in a television soap.

Michael’s second wife, Louisa, is a sort of posh outsider, as she’s both public school-educated and a southerner; Michael is best friends, too, with Gordon’s wife, Sally, and even more 'taken' with their nubile young daughter, Effie, whose serious-minded boyfriend, Castro, a budding film maker, develops an intense passion for Louisa.

So far so neat, formal and complicated, but Jeremy Herrin’s production allows Dunster’s baggy play to breathe and dance along its long, direct address speeches (each character has one) and the meat of its meaning, which is contained in scabr...

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Latest User Review

Emma S - 12 July 2012:

I thought it was a really brave piece. Really funny with a good cast.I don't get what some people's problem was with the show....

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