The reviews are in for Flock, Lin Coghlan’s play about two siblings growing up in and out of the care system, which PlayingON brought home to Lewisham for a week at the Jack Studio Theatre in Brockley. Developed over several years with care-experienced young people, it follows 17-year-old Robbie (Joseph Clarke) as he waits for the housing number that should let him live with his sister Cel (Tabitha Detroit), directed by Jim Pope. The fringe critics who caught the short run agree that the subject matters and that the cast is strong, with Alice Selwyn’s overworked adviser Mrs Bosely singled out more than once. They are less united on the staging: Everything Theatre and London Pub Theatres admire Sophie Jump’s shifting white screens, while Theatre and Tonic finds the design too stylised and the central message blurred.
The verdict: seven reviews of the Jack Studio run. Six carry a rating: three four-star notices, one three-and-a-half and two three-star reviews, an average of 3.6 out of 5, while British Theatre Guide gives no star score. Every critic takes the play’s subject seriously and most single out the company; the reservations are about pace, a slow opening and a bird metaphor that several feel is never fully developed.
What are critics saying about FLOCK?
Everything Theatre
Reviewer: Mary Pollard
Mary Pollard finds a deceptively simple opening giving way to a richly layered piece, and credits the research with care-experienced young people for voices that ring true.
"a performance to come that is packed with rich complexity, revealing vital issues surrounding young people’s experience of the care system"
She praises the four-strong company and Jim Pope’s direction, which moves the action from bedroom to canal to the Eurostar with a set that never stops shifting.
LondonTheatre1
Reviewer: Terry Eastham
Terry Eastham admits it took him a while to warm to the play, as the first scenes did not seem to connect, but says he grew invested in Robbie and Cel as it went on.
"However, it was a really well-written piece of theatre that, after a slow start, really had me hooked."
He did not feel it told him much he did not already know about the care system, but valued seeing it through the eyes of a young man eager to leave it.
ReviewsGate
"Powerful, disturbing social drama."
Reviewer: William Russell
William Russell thinks the production is fortunate in its new cast and makes deft use of its moveable screens, though he found the script projected on the back wall a distraction.
"it is in its own right as a play, as a piece of theatre, one audiences should flock to given more chances."
His one regret is the length of the run, which he feels was too short for word of mouth to build.
The Spy in the Stalls
Reviewer: Robert West
Robert West names Alice Selwyn’s Mrs Bosely as the standout, an understated portrait of an adviser desperate to make a broken system work for the boy in her care.
"Lin Coghlan’s well-crafted play about care and the care system is a quietly devastating and thought provoking piece of theatre."
He would have liked more energy and edge from the rest of the cast, and more made of the bird imagery, but applauds a play that refuses to look away.
London Pub Theatres
"A warm, sincere portrayal of life in and out of the care system."
Reviewer: Rebecca Bairstow
Rebecca Bairstow finds a play with plenty of heart and a spirited cast, more interested in the feelings of the people inside the system than in arguing about policy.
"The staging is one of the most impressive aspects of the play."
She feels it loses momentum and tension towards the end, and notes a few questionable lines of dialogue, but still finds it poignant and funny in equal measure.
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Penny Walshe
Penny Walshe is convinced by the sibling bond between Clarke and Detroit, but reserves her warmest words for the scenes between Robbie and his adviser Mrs Bosely.
"Their interactions and growing relationship are the strongest part of the piece."
Her reservations are a design and direction she finds too stylised, and a central message she thinks needs more clarity.
British Theatre Guide
Reviewer: Sandra Giorgetti
Sandra Giorgetti values the way the play reflects its Lewisham community back to itself while remaining recognisable to anyone in a city.
"There is always a special resonance when a play reflects a community back to itself."
She finds the writing balanced, compassionate and funnier than expected, with only the bird metaphor left not quite realised, and calls it sad but not dispiriting.
Read Sandra Giorgetti’s full review at British Theatre Guide
Production photographs by Lucy Hayes.
For more from the critics, read our roundups of The Brown Suite at Richmond Theatre and HAM at Soho Theatre.
Flock played the Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, from 29 September to 3 October 2026.
