Children’s Inquiry: Musical explores life in care through the eyes of four teenagers

A theatre company that made a name for itself by tackling heavy subjects including housing evictions and self-inflicted deaths in prisons, is releasing its latest project: an inquiry into the UK care system.

Lung Theatre’s new musical, The Children Inquiry, will premiere at Southwark Playhouse Elephant in Dante Place, Elephant and Castle, on July 8 to run until August 3.

Taking first-hand experiences from young people, social workers, politicians, foster carers, care leavers, Lung has created an expansive musical about life in care and the history of the system that more than 80,000 British young people find themselves in today.

Co directors of Lung theatre Matt Woodhead and Helen Monks said the show aims to comfort anyone who is in or has experienced the care system, as well as urging anyone in power to take action and stand up for the rights of young people in care. 

The script tells the story of four teenagers. Jelica has been told by social workers she’s a success story, Frank is on his eighth foster home and at their school, no one knows Amber and Angelica are in care.

Sprawling across more than one hundred years of the system’s development since 1896, these teenagers will travel through time stopping at workhouses, meeting evacuees, child migrants and care leavers on their quest to discover the truth about the state of children’s care in this country.

The cast, who are all children, play historical figures such as Amelia Dyer, the 19th-century woman who fostered infants, received payment for doing so and then murdered them over a 30-year period.

Throughout the production the four teenagers ask difficult questions about the past in the hope they can come up with answers to the future. 

Despite the heavy subject matter, a lightness is brought to The Children’s Inquiry through music.

Composed by Owen Crouch and Clementine Douglas, former members of critically acclaimed band Kudu Blue, their score brings together a range of influences from the decades the show covers including Dusty Springfield, Marvin Gaye and Lizzo.

Ms Douglas won BBC Radio 1’s Dance Artist of the year in 2022 and Mr Crouch is Associate Sound Designer for LUNG and has worked on a number of theatre productions.

Choreography comes from Alexzandra Sarmiento who was a member of the original London cast of Hamilton and has included dances from the different periods in the show including the Charleston and doo-wop. 

Lung creates work that shines a light on political, social and economic issues in modern Britain, using people’s actual words in their stories to create investigative verbatim pieces.

Previous acclaimed productions from the group include Trojan Horse, about teachers and governors who were falsely accused of instigating a plot to takeover Birmingham schools, and Woodhill, a state of the nation look at the crisis in UK prisons co-created with families whose relatives died at HMP Woodhill.

Southwark Playhouse is a registered charity which operates two separate venues, Southwark Playhouse Borough and its newest theatre, Southwark Playhouse Elephant, which opened in January 2023. 

Pictured top: Dara Ajagbe and Logan Clark in rehearsals for The Children’s Inquiry (Picture: Alex Powell)