A tender and devastating account of two siblings growing up in the care system
Lin Coghlan’s award-winning play Flock follows the lives of two siblings, Robbie and Celia, who grow up in the care system. The show explores the instability and displacement experienced by young people growing up in care, the devastation of being split up from siblings, and the strength of the bonds that hold the remaining members of these families together. Directed by Jim Pope, and featuring music by Max Pope, this production is almost painfully real at times.
That sense of reality comes from more than good scripting or meticulous research: it’s the result of 3 years of theatre company Playing On’s research and alongside their ten week program, Raising the Roof, which worked with care experienced young people to develop stories inspired by their real life experiences.
Robbie, played by Jamie Ankrah, Celia (Gabriella Leonardi) and best friend Miko (Deshaye Gayle) feel less like characters and more like people. Their interactions are fluid, funny and extraordinarily well performed. Jennifer Daley puts in an irreproachably competent performance as Mrs Bosely, Robbie’s social worker, but it is clear that the beating heart of this production is the young people, and their remarkable resilience in the face of continued challenges.
Set design by Sandra Falase is simple: a few props used creatively and dynamically throughout the performance, set off by well-judged lighting and sound (Ian Scott and Jules Maxwell respectively). Gayle performs Miko well, acting as lighter relief between the often intense dialogue between siblings. Leonardi too is extraordinarily convincing as the elder sister, sometimes more mother than sister, and the relationship portrayed between Cel and Robbie is heartachingly tender.
Cel is a young woman of 20, with her own life only really just beginning, and yet tied unshakably by a sense of guilt and responsibility to the younger Robbie, still in the system. She is caught between her own hopes and ambitions for the future, and the only family she has. For Robbie, Cel is all he has, and all he’s known. It’s impossible to imagine a future without her in it, the two of them together, like it always has been.
However, Ankrah is undoubtedly the star as Robbie, conveying an impressive range and depth of character. Robbie is smooth, funny, charming, vulnerable, aggressive and frightened simultaneously. Pulling this off is a real triumph.
I was struck, forcefully, by how practical, strong and self-reliant these characters are, and then subsequently, by the toll that it must take to have to be so all the time, from so young. This is an extraordinary piece of theatre, about loneliness, ambition, tragedy, memory, loss – but above all, about family.
Flock is running at Soho Theatre until 2nd November 2024.