WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The last time Daphne Zuniga acted in Vermont, she was a teenager.
Though she spent part of her adolescence in Reading, Vt. and attended Woodstock Union High School after her mom moved her and her sister across the country to the tiny town, the pursuit of an acting career soon took her out of the state.
Her debut in the 1982 slasher film “The Dorm that Dripped Blood” would give way to a long career onscreen in projects such as the sci-fi spoof “Spaceballs” and the ’90s TV drama “Melrose Place.”
Zuniga, now 63 and living in Los Angeles, was filming in Australia when her agent received an email from Carol Dunne, Northern Stage’s producing artistic director, and Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, the company’s BOLD associate artistic director. They were interested in casting Zuniga in a production of “The Children,” English playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s play about the interlocking lives of three scientists living in the aftermath of nuclear disaster.
The offer came as a surprise, but one she gladly accepted.
“I was looking for something that ignited me creatively at my core, before the business part (of acting) took over in the past 40 years,” she said.
“The Children” opens this Saturday in White River Junction, following three nights of previews.
Zuniga is in good company with Emmy-award winning actor Gordon Clapp, who lives in Norwich and plays retired physicist Robin, and Canadian actress Martha Burns, who plays his companion Hazel and whose performance in the early 2000s TV show “Slings and Arrows” earned her two Gemini awards (formerly the Canadian version of the Emmys.)
Hazel and Robin are living a quiet life on the British coast when Rose, an old friend and nuclear physicist played by Zuniga, comes along and uproots their comfortable routine.
The play, which debuted at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2016, takes on “big issues about the environment but in a really human way … It’s very personal for these three characters,” said Wansley, who’s directing the production at Northern Stage.
Wansley and Dunne originally planned to stage “The Children” in 2021, but decided that it was “too reminiscent” of the coronavirus pandemic to perform at the time, Wansley said.
This past year the theater has staged a number of “lighter pieces,” Wansley said, and “The Children” seemed like a good counterweight.
That’s not to say that the play isn’t just as relevant to current times as it was five years ago, especially as the climate continues to warm and anxieties about environmental destruction loom large.
The show asks us “What are we standing back and watching happen?” Wansley said. “How do we talk to the children about it?”
Indeed, there’s a familiar tension at work in the play between the desire to insulate oneself from catastrophe or face it head on. Robin and Hazel are not so unlike those who move to the Upper Valley seeking solitude and safety and paying a premium for it.
Even outside of the Upper Valley, “We have this fantasy of leaving the world’s problems behind because it’s too much to handle,” said Zuniga, who has participated in environmental activism alongside her acting career. But, “Your plan of doing nothing will only last so long.”
Hollywood’s stars, with their wealth and secluded houses in L.A.’s hills, are not as insulated as they appear, said Zuniga, acknowledging her friends who lost their homes in the wildfires that devastated the Palisades last year.
“We’re not as protected as people think,” she said.
Rehearsing “The Children” has given her an opportunity to chew on these themes as well as exercise a different set of acting muscles.
Long days of shooting can be grueling, but rehearsing theater six days a week at a fast clip yields its own kind of fatigue.
Zuniga has embraced it, though, relishing in the challenge of excavating the “inner world of this character,” she said.
“I feel used up in the most gratifying way.”
She’s also been amused by the distinctly dry, British humor that gives the play its comedic edge and cuts through its existential darkness. “The humor’s really smart,” she said.
“I think this play is going to be for smart middle-aged and older people,” she added.
Wansley sees it appealing to younger audiences, too. “Gen Z is so tapped into questions of sustainability,” she said.
Northern Stage’s production of “The Children,” which opens on Saturday, March 28, following three nights of previews, is up through April 12 in White River Junction. For tickets ($37-$80; $28 for youth ages 25 and under and students) go to northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
Song support
The Anonymous Coffeehouse is hosting a “Green Room Gathering” at 5:30 p.m. this Friday at Lebanon’s First Congregational Church where people can stop in to consult singer-songwriter Devan Tracy about a song they’re working on and enjoy free pizza and soft drinks.
The event will be followed by performances from folk-pop artist River Glen, British singer-songwriter Rupert Wates and the acoustic duo Crowes Pasture. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Learn more at anoncoffee.org.
Get a clue
Lebanon High School will perform “Clue (High School Edition),” the whodunit comedy based on the Hasbro board game, at Lebanon Opera House this Friday and Saturday. Tickets can be acquired at the door. The show is free with a $5-$10 suggested donation. For more information go to lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
Rhythms in Randolph
Guitar player Avi J. Salloway of the 20+ piece ensemble All the Rivers and of Billy Wylder will join the intergenerational Belize group Garifuna Collective at Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 28. For tickets (pay what you can $10-$40) and to learn more, go to chandler-arts.org.
Barbecue and blues
Musician John Lackard has been performing in Vermont for decades and this Saturday at 5 p.m. he’s bringing “danceable blues” to Big Fatty’s BBQ in White River Junction.