It’s the tenth birthday of LUNG Theatre Company, and for half of that time, they have been developing The Children’s Inquiry, a verbatim musical utilising the words of children, now playing at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant.
A cast of ten young people between the ages of 13 and 18 take the stage – there are two alternate casts – and relay the story of children deemed ‘unwanted’ (or, to quote A Christmas Carol, ‘the surplus population’).
The Children’s Inquiry has songs and moments where the cast lip-synch to the words of adults, notably politicians. The show starts with a request for us to ‘rise for the Judge’ as the inquiry begins, and moves on to ‘call witnesses’ from through history.
Starting with Amelia Dyer, who killed numerous children placed in her care, and finishing right up to date with the ‘change starts now’ mantra of our new PM, Keir Starmer, this show highlights how, despite many legal and political interventions, vulnerable children are still being failed.
It’s a production that manages to find light-hearted moments while forcing you to hear unpalatable truths about abuse, neglect, forced labour, separation, and lack of choice. One line stood out for me: ‘I don’t want to be a child for ever, but I don’t want to grow up.”
One of the main characters, Frank (Noah Walton), has been through eight foster homes. Another, Jelicia (Eva Philipps), sees her family torn apart and placed with different carers.
Two sisters, Angelica (Lineo Nomonde) and Amber (Chizaram Ochuba-Okafor), cope together when their parents are deported following short prison sentences.
There are more stories around the edges, of the depression, war, the nuclear threat, Australian migration, Clause 28, Baby P, and mothers struggling with addiction or poverty.
To see a cast who are still children themselves performing these roles is often tough, but refreshing. These are a talented bunch just as much at home mouthing the speech of Margeret Thatcher as discussing the joy of being a ‘nana’.
The movement (by Alexzandra Sarmiento) is great – there’s even a dance sequences with all ten cast members masked up as former PM Tony Blair – and the music (by Owen Crouch and Clementine Douglas) is pulsing, whether in modern beats or 50s doo-wop.
The lighting is sharp and often atmospheric, with excellent use of torches in one sequence, but for much of the time, the overhead lights flicker slightly, which could irritate some people.
Aside from the four main characters, there’s excellent work from Antonia Tom-Dollar (particularly good as Dyer), Jersey Blu-Georgia as Camila Batmanghelidjh with ‘Unrelenting Love’, and Vincio Korch as the idealistic Tony who is sent down under in 1953.
Kai Parillon and Jude Farrant are excellent as 1930s orphaned brothers in ‘Aeroplanes and Gliders’, while Mia Raggio is lively and energetic throughout, notably as Laura Beveridge.
This team of youngsters, under the direction of Matt Woodhead (co-writer with Helen Monks), display inflating energy and confidence, plus a mature approach to the material, which suggests everything changes – but everything stays the same
Highly recommended.
The Children’s Inquiry continues to 3 Aug at Southwark Playhouse’s Elephant site with tickets here.
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Image credit: Alex Powell