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REVIEW: ECHO Players stage compelling performance of ‘The Children’

Award-winning play currently on until March 19 at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach
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Ian Morton as Robin, Colleen Janssen Hood as Hazel and Jody Tkach as Rose in ECHO Players’ production of ‘The Children’ at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach. (Don Emerson photo)

By Lorraine Browne

Extraordinary performances of epic proportions! Even as a potentially disturbing subject, The Children is a compelling story with stellar performances by three actors in a class of their own, carrying the play without fail from opening to conclusion.

The Children, an award-winning play by Lucy Kirkwood directed by Don Harper, is an outstanding accomplishment in local amateur theatre, presented with pride by ECHO Players.

While you might be less than enthusiastic about the topic, the play is well worth seeing for the calibre of acting alone. And there are some surprising twists and turns.

The Children focuses on the meltdown of a nearby nuclear reactor and the results of the dangerous fallout. It involves a retired husband and wife, nuclear physicists facing a serious dilemma.

Should they risk entering the reactor to relieve much younger colleagues, at a time in life when they are looking forward to the rewards of grown children and grandchildren?

All the drama and intrigue play out in the kitchen of a modest cottage along the English coast, where electricity and water are rationed due to the meltdown.

Brilliantly believable as Hazel is the amazing Colleen Janssen Hood, with her spellbinding performance as the domestically-oriented wife, who despite the seriousness of events focuses on practicing yoga and tossing a salad.

Hazel’s affable husband Don is the very charming and disarming Ian Morton, who appears capable of wrapping his affections around two women, breaking the tension at one point by serving up several bottles of his homemade parsnip wine.

The romantic tension surfaces when Rose, played by the effectively interfering Jody Tkach, another physicist and an old flame with challenges of her own, arrives from America unexpectedly and unannounced.

This award-winning play originally launched in London, then on Broadway, and was later staged at Victoria’s Belfy Theatre. The play has chalked up two Tony Award nominations.

Acting of such calibre and dedication should be acknowledged.

Support your local theatre. Gather a group together for this must-see performance of The Children, playing now until March 19th at the Village Theatre.

Tickets are available online at www.echoplayers.ca, by phone at 250-752-3522 and at the Village Theatre box office, open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Bravo!

— NEWS Staff, submitted

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Ian Morton as Robin, Colleen Janssen Hood as Hazel and Jody Tkach as Rose in ECHO Players’ production of ‘The Children’ at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach. (Don Emerson photo)