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Flock originally toured nationally, including a four-week run at the Soho Theatre.
Now it's coming home to Lewisham.
Robbie is 17. His sister Cel is 20. They've grown up in and out of the care system, different placements, different addresses, always finding their way back to each other. Cel wants to go to university. Robbie wants them to finally live together in one place. Neither of those things seems too much to ask.
What follows is Robbie’s journey back through every place he's lived, every moment they shared, every argument and tender exchange, trying to understand how they got here, and whether any of it was his fault.
Lin Coghlan's play is a portrait of grief, love and resilience told through the eyes of a young man who sees the world through the behaviour of birds: free, loyal, and pecking the shit out of each other. It is sad, funny, honest and, in the end, full of hope.
Flock is set in Lewisham, rooted in Lewisham, and made with and for the people of Lewisham. There are 461 children in the borough without a family home. This play is not about statistics. It's about what that actually feels like.
Robbie — Joseph Clark
Cel — Tabitha Detroit
Miko — Romeo Mika
Mrs Bosely — Alice Selwyn
Cast & Creatives
Written by Lin Coghlan
Directed — Jim Pope
Executive Producer — Rhian Davies
Set and Costume Designer — Sophie Jump
Design Associate — Amelia Kyriacou
Production Manager and Technical Stage Manager — Brent Tan
Assistant Stage Manager — Isabella Caseley
Marketing design — Nancy Ellis
Movement director — Kwami Odoom
Photography — Lucy Hayes
Lighting Designer — Alex Wardle
Sound Designer — Jules Maxwell
Producer — Chris Elwell
Programme Manager, Education — Nina Graveney-Edwards
The Jack Studio Theatre, Brockley Road, Lewisham
29 September – 3 October 2026 at 7.30 pm, 3 October matinee at 3.00pm
Performance Dates
How can culture reshape support for care-experienced young people?
Held at the start of Care Leavers' Month 2026, Flock: In Formation is a conference exploring how creativity and culture can play a more meaningful role in supporting care-experienced young people.
A conference for care-experienced young people, practitioners and policy makers. Co-created with young people who have expertise by experience, this isn't a conference where the people with lived experience sit in the audience. They're at the table, shaping it. The work itself will be living proof of what it looks like to work alongside potential rather than manage need.
Goldsmiths, University of London
Wednesday 4th of November
10am - 5pm
Flock: In Formation
Our Flock: In Formation Speakers
Antoinette Daniel
Antoinette Daniel is the founder of Just Helpers, a multi-award-winning ethical cleaning company she built from a kitchen-table side hustle into a team of 40+, now turning over £1 million. The company has paid above the Real Living Wage since day one. A former PE teacher and care leaver herself, she spent over a decade campaigning against human trafficking before starting Just Helpers, and now serves as a Trustee of Flourish Mentors, supporting young women leaving the care system. She's a regular speaker on ethical business, fair pay, and building a life beyond the care system.
Lucy (Chau Lai-Tuen) Sheen
Lucy (Chau Lai-Tuen) Sheen is a Hong Kong foundling. Flown over to the UK two years after the race riots in Nottinghill and six years before Enoch Powell’s now infamous “Rivers of Blood”speech.
Lucy trained as a classical actor graduating from the Rose Bruford College of Speech of Drama in1984. Since graduation she has worked extensively on stage, film, TV, radio, new media,commercials including The RSC, Bristol Old Vic, the BBC, ITV and Netflix.
Lucy is a published playwright, poet, non-fiction and flash-fiction writer as well as a director and dramaturge.
Chris Wild
Chris Wild, Best-Selling Author, International Care Reform Adviser and Director of Social Impact at Foster Greatness UK
Chris Wild is a best-selling author, internationally recognised care reform adviser and Director of Social Impact at Foster Greatness UK. Drawing on both lived and professional experience of the care system, he has become a powerful voice for children, young people and care experienced adults, using his work to challenge inequality, influence policy and improve how support is understood and delivered.
Jade Barnett
Jade Barnett is the Co-Founder, Director & CEO of Power2Prevail Community, and an international public speaker, consultant, and facilitator specialising in cultural competency, youth voice & participation, and supporting young people transitioning from the care system.
Born and raised in South East London, Jade’s lived experience of permanent school exclusion and entering the care system at 15 fuels her mission to advocate for vulnerable and marginalised young people. Since 2020, she has championed youth voice and improved outcomes for care-experienced young people, contributing to national campaigns alongside Mission 44 & Sir Lewis Hamilton and Become Charity.
What else is happening?
Walk the Story
A self-guided walk through the streets of Lewisham that puts location at the heart of the story and takes you deeper into the world of Miko, Robbie's friend who is quietly facing his own crisis on the edges of care.
Community Tour
We're bringing Flock to community spaces across Lewisham, so the play comes to the people as much as the people come to the play.
Interested?
Whether you want to come to a performance, take the audio walk, attend the conference, or find out how to bring Flock to your organisation or community, get in touch or sign up using the form below.
FLOCK 2024
Inspired by the resilience of young people in the care system, this beautifully written new play by multi award-winning writer Lin Coghlan (The Forsyte Saga Parts 1&2, Park Theatre; The Table, Cardboard Citizens) toured across the country to Oxford, Derby, Bath and Salford, and needed with a 4 week run at the Soho Theatre in October 2024.
Through extensive research and workshopping, the show was shaped by those with lived experiences of growing up in care to create a multi-layered story. Those who have experienced care have been historically underrepresented, and misrepresented, in the nation's cultural output. Flock explored the people behind the systems, the moments of joy, and the complexities of belonging.
This version of the production was developed over three years and alongside Playing ON’s ten week programme ‘Raising the Roof’, which used a combination of online and face to face contact for care experienced young people, culminating in a public performance event. Flock’s authenticity was made possible by the involvement of participants via this programme and at every stage of its development.