With the recent openings of “The Children” and “Dry Land,” area theaters continue to launch their seasons on a high note. And the kids are the stars.
“This is not going to be an easy play,” you’d be right to think early on. And then keep wondering, as Amy and Ester’s complicated relationship unfolds. “Dry Land” joins a slew of plays and TV shows written by women about how very cruel, occasionally kind, and profoundly hungering teenage girls can be. Think Square Product’s summer production of Clare Barron’s “Dance Nation,” or Sarah DeLappe’s “The Wolves,” or the Showtime series “Yellowjackets” — each written .
If “Dry Land” hurls toward a bloody conclusion, the Butterfly Effect Theatre Company’s production of “The Children,” directed by Stephen Weitz begins with some bloodletting of its own, or at least a bloodied nose. The two women act oh-so-polite but don’t much care for each other and certainly have no clue what their lives have been like for the decades that have passed since they worked together at the power station on England’s coast. Rose asks about Robin and Hazel’s daughter Lauren, not knowing there were three more children, and then grandchildren. Hazel fishes around for information about another of their group, Douglas, but there’s no bait to be taken.