Flock runs at Brockley's Jack Studio, 29 September to 3 October, £17 or £15 concessions, then a Lewisham audio walk and a Goldsmiths conference on 4 November.
A play about two siblings in the care system, written for and about Lewisham, opens at the Jack Studio Theatre on Brockley Road on Tuesday 29 September and runs to Saturday 3 October.
Flock is by the Lewisham theatre charity PlayingON. It follows Robbie, who is 17, and his older sister Cel, who is 20, as the care system keeps pulling them apart. The company premiered the production at Soho Theatre and toured it to Oxford, Derby, Bath and Salford. This autumn it comes back to the borough that shaped it.
The stage run is one of four strands. There is also a programme of schools and community performances, a self-guided audio walk through Lewisham streets, and a national conference at Goldsmiths in November.
The practical details
From the Jack Studio Theatre listing:
- Dates: Tuesday 29 September to Saturday 3 October, 7.30pm
- Matinee: Saturday 3 October at 3pm
- Tickets: £17 standard, £15 concessions (full-time students, over 65s, registered unwaged, under 18s and Equity members)
- Running time: 70 minutes, no interval
- Age guidance: 14+
The theatre lists content warnings for strong language, loud music and flashing lights, and for material covering care experience, death, grief and complex family relationships, with references to abuse, substance use and mental illness.
The venue is at 410 Brockley Road, SE4 2DH. The theatre says it is three minutes’ walk from Crofton Park station and eight to ten minutes from Honor Oak Park. Both the theatre and the Brockley Jack pub next door have full wheelchair access, and there is an accessible toilet with grab rails on the pub’s ground floor.
Why the company is bringing it back here
Rhian Davies, PlayingON’s executive director, wrote to Lewisham News to flag the run. She set out why the return matters to the company:
“Written by Lin Coghlan, Flock grew out of PlayingON’s long term work with care experienced young people and tells a story about care, family, belonging and the people who step in when systems don’t quite work. The play itself is rooted in Lewisham, so bringing it back to local audiences feels particularly significant for us.”
She added: “PlayingON has been based in Lewisham for many years, working with young people and communities across the borough as well as nationally. We’re really keen for local people to know that this work is happening on their doorstep.”
PlayingON’s own listing for the play states that there are 461 children in the borough without a family home. That figure is the company’s, and we have not seen the source it draws on.
An audio walk, and a conference on 4 November
The audio piece is called Walk The Story. PlayingON describes it as a self-guided walk through the streets of Lewisham that puts location at the heart of the story. The company’s press release says it follows Miko across a single night as he looks for somewhere safe to sleep, and that it is delivered entirely through audio. It is due to go live on the PlayingON website by 29 September.
The conference is on Wednesday 4 November, 10am to 5pm, at Goldsmiths, University of London, 8 Lewisham Way, SE14 6NW. It is called Flock: In Formation and is listed for ages 16 and over. The Eventbrite listing says it looks at how creativity and culture can play a more meaningful role in supporting care-experienced young people, and that it was co-created with young people who have lived experience of care.
In its press release the company says the play will sit at the heart of the conference itself, “not as a standalone performance, but as a live case study of how lived experience can shape professional artistic work and influence wider systems”. The programme is supported by what PlayingON calls its Lived Experience Leadership Team, a group of paid care-experienced young leaders who work on programme design, evaluation and advocacy. The wider project is supported by Arts Council England.
Who is in it
PlayingON’s production page lists the cast as:
- Joseph Clark as Robbie
- Tabitha Detroit as Cel
- Romeo Mika as Miko
- Alice Selwyn as Mrs Bosely
Behind them: Lin Coghlan (writer), Jim Pope (director), Sophie Jump (set and costume), Alex Wardle (lighting), Jules Maxwell (sound), Chris Elwell (producer), Rhian Davies (executive producer) and Nina Graveney-Edwards (programme manager, education).
The company was founded in 2010 by the late playwright Philip Osment and the director Jim Pope, and became a charitable incorporated organisation in 2021. Its press release says Flock was developed through Raising The Roof, a programme working with care-experienced young people across London, and that its current partners include Lewisham College, Spotlight Youth Services and Rose Bruford.
What it means for you
If you want to see it, the run is short. Five evenings and one matinee, in a studio theatre, in the fortnight after the schools go back. Tickets are on the Jack Studio site, and the concession rate covers students, over 65s and under 18s.
If you run a school, youth group or community organisation in the borough, the company says it is taking the production out to community spaces across Lewisham and invites organisations to get in touch about hosting it. Enquiries go to Rhian Davies at rhian@playingon.org.uk.
Getting to Brockley Road without a car is easy enough: Crofton Park and Honor Oak Park are both close, and our trains and travel guide covers the lines. There are more ideas for the weeks ahead in things to do in Lewisham and in our roundup of Lewisham’s October half term.
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