Review: The Children's Inquiry (Southwark Playhouse Elephant)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Verbatim theatre offers those whose stories are being told a unique opportunity – their words, exactly as said or written, form the work but they themselves are often not present in or even for the performance. In LUNG’s new musical The Children’s Inquiry, the words of foster children, their carers, birth parents, social workers, and political figures shape the material, with a cast of young performers acting as their conduits. Aiming to tackle the complex, challenging history of the foster system, the Southwark Playhouse Elephant’s stage plays host to an impassioned youth group with plenty to say, and just as much to lip-sync. 

Shaped over the past five years, The Children’s Inquiry’s credits include four teenage creatives under pseudonyms – Frank, Jelicia, Amber and Angelica are credited alongside Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead for the book and lyrics, perhaps helping to pick and choose quotes but almost certainly contributing their own experiences. The musical is loosely structured around a group of young artists who have decided that the adults have been unsuccessful in properly examining the foster care system, and have chosen to undertake the titular inquiry themselves – the stories compiled take us through the history of childcare for orphaned and neglected children over 150 years, highlighting what has changed and what is left to be improved.

Singling out stronger performers feels in poor taste with a company composed entirely of young performers, and highlighting any shortcomings bordering on cruel. Two ensembles of child and teen actors alternate performances of The Children’s Inquiry, and the most I will say is that the cast at the press night performance were energetic, entirely able, and brought terrific energy to the production – whether a stronger vocalist, a sharper dancer, or a more sparkling comedian, every young person on stage had ample opportunities to showcase their skills.

In fact, a slight detractor could be that there were too many such opportunities, the show running close to two hours and forty-five minutes. While such stories are utterly essential, the show could have benefitted from leaning into the looseness of its structure and quickening the transitions into new subjects. Monks, Woodhead and co’s book introduces major players as witnesses testifying as part of the inquiry, but the lack of this in the show’s second half made me wonder whether there was any need for it to begin with. The selection of audios and sung quotations is strong and dynamic, but potentially overwhelming in trying to cover such a long and difficult history.

The music, from Owen Crouch and Clementine Douglas, is pulsing and contemporary, attention-grabbing for the audience and seemingly a lot of fun for the cast to have accompany them. A sad truth about verbatim musicals is that you likely won’t come away singing a catchy tune you heard that evening – politicians and interviewees discussing their childhoods so rarely thinking about rhyme schemes – but the composers assure that you will certainly find the beats infectious in the moment. I’ve come across several quotes comparing the work to Hamilton crossed with Matilda, and where similarities do lie in the work, this doesn’t do justice to how exciting and emotionally-fuelled Crouch and Douglas’ contributions are. Likewise, we can’t not give credit to the entire creative team for how well the interviews and pulled quotes have been moulded to these melodies, making them feel authentic and as if they were created alongside each other, rather than one shaped to the other.

Likewise, Alexzandra Sarmiento’s choreography feels natural to the proceedings – the movement is slick and well-planned, but doesn’t lose the sense of joy that these kids could absolutely have devised their performances without adult assistance. Lulu Tam’s set design, with imposing mountains of chairs along the back wall and their front row moved by the cast as required, is used to great effect. No sooner had I wondered if the piles placed around the stage were meant to symbolised the structures that have failed these children, than they threw them one by one to the ground, dismissing their presence and their powers.

Acting as director as well as co-writer, Matt Woodhead keeps a sense of hope through the dark, often upsetting stories told. Otherwise-serious quotes are delivered with a sense of humour, mocking the powerful figures complicit in the system’s failures and bringing some levity to what could easily become a maudlin, overly-serious piece of theatre. The Children’s Inquiry ends on a message of hope, and that hope – and the determination of these young creatives to create better futures – permeate the work from start to finish. While they could be brisker, and a firmer decision around having or not having a structure for the storytelling could be a great help, there’s no denying the power and necessity of The Children’s Inquiry.

The Children’s Inquiry plays at Southwark Playhouse Elephant until August 3rd

For tickets and information visit https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/the-childrens-inquiry/

Photos by Alex Powell