Steel Yourself Before Attending Playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s Latest, ‘The Welkin,’ as It Is Both Mesmerizing and Harrowing

In addition to fine performances by Haley Wong, Sandra Oh, and others, the play includes one of the most graphically brutal sequences this reviewer has ever witnessed in a theater.

Ahron R. Foster
A scene from 'The Welkin.' Ahron R. Foster

Few things are more frustrating than watching a potentially marvelous play (or film, for that matter) either run too long or veer off course. “The Welkin,” the latest effort from acclaimed playwright Lucy Kirkwood to arrive in New York, is guilty on both counts — which is not, by any means, to say you should miss it.

Set in England in the late 1750s, as its characters await the appearance of Halley’s Comet, “Welkin,” titled after an archaic word for the sky or the heavens, focuses on a group of 12 women who have been charged with determining whether one of their neighbors is pregnant. The subject in question, one Sally Poppy, stands accused of the murder of a young girl, in a most gruesome fashion, and only proof of a budding child can spare her a date with the local hangman.

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