"The Children's Hour". Pilch. Review by Victoria Tayler
Scrap The Crucible , it’s all about this. The Children’s Hour is a devastating play, and the production company Silly Snail (this is anything but silly) delivered it so well that I leave teary-eyed and a little distraught. A Tesco meal deal later, and I’m half-back in the world, but when I walk past the cast on Broad Street, I can’t quite believe they’re smiling. I resist the urge to tell them how good they are and bottle it up for the review, stewing in the world of longing and grief that they’ve created and dismantled with ease. If you’re not familiar with The Children’s Hour, here’s the gist: two women, Martha and Karen, have scraped and saved to open a small school in rural New England. They’re friends from college, close, ambiguously so. Karen is set to get married to Joe, a local doctor, a decision which Martha struggles to come to terms with. But such concerns become sidelined when Mary Tilford, one of their students, spreads the rumour they are in a queer relationship, ultimate...
