With the long term effects on the planet of human activities becoming increasingly visible, there have been a spate of plays addressing our era of the Anthropocene, a new geological age where human influence is literally being deposited within the fossil record.

Stunning theatrical responses have included playwright Caryl Churchill’s frighteningly surreal and apocalyptic Escaped Alone (produced by Red Stich in 2019 and Melbourne Theatre Company in 2023), and Ella Hickson’s trans-temporal, globetrotting play Oil, also staged by Red Stitch in 2019 before productions of Oil last year from Sydney Theatre Company and then Black Swan.

Ostensively following on from Black Swan State Theatre Company’s own version of Oil, the company has now mounted Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children — another script first performed with a different cast by the STC, before Black Swan’s new West Australian iteration.

The Children; Caroline Brazier, Nicola Barlett and Humphrey Bower. Photo © Philip Gostelow

Inspired by events around the flood-induced failure of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor, The Children deals with a period after such a disaster, with retired UK nuclear physicists Hazel (by far the most interesting character, played by Nicola Barlett)...