Dramatising the ‘Slow Violence’ of Climate Change in Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children

How has climate change affected our daily life? How has the climate crisis been perceived or experienced? How can climate change be embodied on stage? This paper explores these questions through the analysis of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children. Building upon Rob Nixon’s concept of ‘slow violence’, this paper explores the idea of the gradual and often overlooked harm caused by climate change. This harm is often seen as insignificant due to its slow and continuous nature, but it exerts a powerful control over the movement of both humans and non-human entities, such as animals and nature. Through the cultural criticisms on the relationship between neoliberalism and climate change, this paper suggests that Kirkwood’s The Children discloses and challenges anthropocentrism and presentism of the contemporary neoliberal world. This paper analyses how Kirkwood embodies the slow violence of climate change, which is invisible and amorphous, through the actions and theatrical elements of the characters.