The children’s Hour
By Lillian Hellman at The Old Fitz Theatre 2025
Cast
Sarah Ballantyne, Jess Bell, Amy Bloink, Mike Booth, Annie Byron, Kim Clifton, Romney Hamilton, Martelle Hammer, Miranda Huttley, Deborah Jones, Lara Kocsis, Madeline Kunstler, Kira McLennan
CREATIVES
Producing Company: Tiny Dog Productions & Dead Fly Productions
Playwright: Lillian Hellman
Director: Kim Hardwick
Producers: Deborah Jones & Romney Hamilton
Assistant Director: Maddy Steadman
Set Designer: Emelia Simcox
Costume Designer: Hannah Yardley
Lighting Designer: Jimi Rawlings
Stage Manager: Clare Sheridan
Accent/Dialect Coach: Linda Nicholls-Gidley
Scenic Artist: Russell Carey
Set Builders: Glen Hamilton & Dave Hodgkins
Props: Eva Felding
Graphic Designer: Mel Jensen
PRODUCERS NOTE
When we started the process of casting The Children’s Hour, one of our wonderful actors posed the question to us, ‘why this play now?’. This was something that we were always acutely aware of when we pitched it to The Old Fitz.
Originally we thought of telling a reimagining of the play to make it feel more modern but when gaining the rights to the play, we were advised that no changes could be made and that the work had to remain as it was. When re-reading a thousand more times (ok maybe not a thousand but you get our point!), it became increasingly obvious that the play did not need to change at all.
Written in 1934 by Lillian Hellman, the play is as relevant today as it was then. While the subject of the lie that is told is not shocking to modern audiences as it was when the work was first shown, what lies at the heart of the play is the insidious nature of lies and the way that they have the potential to ruin lives. The play exposes homophobia as a societal sickness with heartbreaking consequences. In 2024, a year that saw a global reversal of queer rights, with impact that is far reaching with a change in power in the US, The Children's Hour implores us to do better as the 90 year old text rings ominously true of recent events. We have the power as a society to support, protect and stand for the rights of every single person who simply wants to live their lives as they are.
Kim Hardwick says of the work “I hope audiences will reflect on the consequences of a lie and I also hope they will go home and look up the meaning of the word morality and reflect on its current value in today’s social and cultural milieu. I want them to leave the theatre asking more of themselves and others.”
Reviews
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Diana Simmonds, Stage Noise
"Bleak, spellbinding, and beautifully realised. It's impossible to look away from these fine actors and the story they tell. Brilliant." Stagenoise
⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Time Out Sydney
"A fascinating piece of queer dramatic history, this tightly wound drama lands at the Old Fitz with brilliantly devastating results… compelling and important viewing. A brilliant and heartbreaking play." Time Out
⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Jessica Louise Smith, Honi Soit
"Kim Hardwick's production of The Children's Hour at the Old Fitz Theatre is an elegant navigation of suppression and queer identity in the 1930s, occupying space in Sydney's Mardi Gras season as a cutting reminder of consequence." Honi Soit
— Richard Cotter, Australian Stage Online
"Jess Bell as Martha and Romney Hamilton as Karen wonderfully complement each other as the couple stigmatised and ostracised on the hearsay of a scheming child… Plaudits to producers Deborah Jones & Romney Hamilton for reviving Hellman's classic of criminal injustice instigated by whim and whisper in a production that is a bang not a whimper." Australianstage
— ArtsHub
"This production by Dead Fly and Tiny Dog Productions is a game changer for low-budget independent theatre in Sydney… this is a production that sizzles. "Director Kim Hardwick has excelled at keeping this dark but at times hilarious production moving forwards, while extracting equally matched performances from seasoned actors and a chorus of young actors with ease." ArtsHub
— The Scoop
"The Children's Hour is a formidable dramatic experience that tackles this dilemma head-on and will have you leaving the theatre asking more from yourselves and others." The Scoop
— Stage Whispers
"This production could have led the way in any major company's programme."