Meera Syal to star in new production of Lucy Kirkwood’s seminal drama The Children at the Lyric Hammersmith, directed by the theatre’s Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan.
Dame Meera Syal will star in a new production of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children at the Lyric Hammersmith this autumn, in a production marking the play’s tenth anniversary.
Olivier Award-nominated Syal (A Tupperware of Ashes, Goodness Gracious Me), who starred in the Lyric’s own smash-hit Noises Off in 2019, plays Hazel, a woman clinging to normality on the edge of a radiation exclusion zone. The play charts the events as Hazel’s carefully ordered world is upended by the unexpected arrival of an old friend.
The production is directed by Lyric Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan, who has described The Children as a modern classic whose themes of intergenerational accountability and environmental crisis have only grown more urgent since the play’s Royal Court debut in 2016. Full casting is yet to be announced.
The Children runs at the Lyric Hammersmith from 2 September to 3 October 2026.
A modern classic, ten years on
Since its premiere at the Royal Court in 2016, The Children has established itself as one of the most important British plays of the twenty-first century: a taut, morally complex drama that has only become more resonant as the climate crisis has moved from background anxiety to reality.
O’Riordan said she is thrilled to be bringing Kirkwood’s “thrilling play” to the Lyric this September, adding: “it’s funny, moving, and asks big questions around personal morality — what would any of us do if we were asked to do something so terrifying?”
The play centres on Hazel and Robin, a retired couple surviving on the fringes of a radiation exclusion zone following an unspecified catastrophe. Life has contracted to the domestic and the manageable: yoga, parsnip wine, keeping going. Then an old friend, Rose arrives, bringing with her buried memories, old secrets and a proposition that forces them to confront what they truly owe to the generations that will come after them.
Meera Syal returns to the Lyric
For Lyric regulars, Syal’s casting will carry a particular charge: her 2019 appearance in Noises Off at the same venue was widely celebrated. Her return to the Lyric stage in a role that demands stillness and moral weight rather than comic chaos, is one of the most intriguing pieces of casting of the autumn season.
Syal says she is “thrilled to be back at the Lyric Hammersmith and working with Rachel O’Riordan on Lucy Kirkwood’s brilliant, timely play.”
Given what both artist and director have brought to the Lyric before, that’s a combination well worth watching.
Rachel O’Riordan directs
O’Riordan has been one of the most distinctive forces in British theatre since taking up the Artistic Directorship of the Lyric, consistently programming work that combines political urgency with emotional intimacy.
By framing the play as being “about personal morality” as much as climate disaster, she signals an approach that will keep the focus on the three characters at its heart, as well as the impossible question Rose places before them.
The wider cast and creatives
Full casting is yet to be announced, with the creative team including set and costume design by Gary McCann, lighting design by Anna Watson and sound design by Holly Khan.
Plan your visit
- Show: The Children by Lucy Kirkwood
- Venue: Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London W6 0QL
- Dates: 2 September – 3 October 2026
- Starring: Dame Meera Syal
- Tickets: Now booking – The Children Tickets
Lyric Hammersmith, London
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