The Children's Inquiry - Green Room Reviews

July 9, 2024

8th July – 3rd August 2024

As the audience enters, we are greeted by children sitting and chatting around a series of small orange tables. Dance music and a strong underlying beat plays in the background until the stage is cleared and Big Ben chimes. We are invited to stand for the judge. As this cast of young people sing the opening number, the production already feels powerful and goosebump-inducing.

The Children’s Inquiry is a musical about the UK care system. We are presented with its history from 1896 workhouses to the present day, including acts of Parliament such as the 1945 Children’s Act, the Child Migration Scheme in the 1953, the Children’s Home Act in 1982 and the Immigration Rule. We also remember horrific acts such as the killing of Baby P in 2007 under Haringey Council’s watch, and 57-Year-Old ‘Baby Farmer’ Amelia Dyer’s conviction in 1896 for killing what is thought to be as many as 400 babies in her care.

“Hamilton meets Six the Musical meets Matilda meets Diversity”

Written by Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead, this has been five years in the making and pulls from Frank and Jelicia (real life Tom Hume-Steer and Tamara Browne)’s own experiences in the foster care system.

The whole production is sung from start to finish, and is a mix of Hamilton meets Six the Musical meets Matilda meets Diversity. With music written by Owen Crouch and Clementine Douglas – best known for her work with Chase and Status – the tracks are mostly drum and bass, broken up with lip syncing to sound bites from significant people such as various Prime Ministers, other political figureheads and our late Queen Elizabeth II. This musical theme varies at one point with an upbeat ‘doo wop’ number about sexual and physical abuse with birth rights being taken away during the 1950s when children were shipped to Australia. Throughout it all, they keep smiling and retain hope – the constant hope of change by successive governments.

The talent displayed from the (very cool) cast is mind-blowing. Alternating between two casts each night, tonight we were graced with the presence of Hari Aggarwal, Dara Ajagbe, Josh Cain, Logan Clark, Kenya Grace, Faith Ifil, Fearn I’Anson, Anna De Oliveira, Archie Smith and Grace Thomas. These are ridiculously talented young people who were born to be on stage.

Each cast member is given a chance to shine with a solo. Each and every one a joy to watch perform, I was particularly enthralled by Fearne I’Anson who played Young Eponine in the Les Misérables UK Tour 2022-2023, and the soulful voice of Faith Ifil who you may have witnessed receive the Golden Buzzer in Britain’s Got Talent 2020.

If I could add some constructive criticism, it would be that the first half could have been half an hour shorter. It ended up being repetitive and could be condensed – less is more. In addition, there could be a few more chord variations / key changes in some of the musical numbers, as it tended to stay very much on one level for much of the production.

All in all, a very important piece, which the whole team at Lung should be very proud of.