Zachari Duncalf and the Director Vicky Featherstone.

A packed theatre, a stark set and a tense wait, then onto the stage walk 14 care leavers. Each of them had their black bin bags in hand (a nice touch, though perhaps lost on some of the audience). Their shadows silhouetted against a brick wall fix the scene in your mind like a child's 'Etch A Sketch' drawing. Both Jim (CLA Secretary) and I had been waiting for this opening scene for some weeks. We were hoping that we wouldn’t have to write a bad review and pondering how the writer, director and actors had used the stories that some of our members (along with a group of young care leavers in Edinburgh) had provided in order to get the issues across to a wider audience. 

Although the play tells a number of fragmented stories, overall it is a way of presenting the leaving care experience that we both particularly liked. We each, for different reasons, found it a very moving and powerful piece of theatre. However, it draws from the experiences of younger care leavers and some older care leavers may not see any of their own story in this production. The ‘away from the kitchen sink’ production style will also appeal to some. Fantasy and dance sequences in a play about care leavers? Jim loved it but I wasn't so sure. Also, some will be left longing for a traditional beginning, middle and end. However, the Director, Vicky Featherstone, had already explained to us her sense that the leaving care experience didn't have neat endings or narratives and neither should the play. She was surely right about that.

The play shows the audience snippets of the lives of these young people on the brink of leaving care and starting out in various 'independence flats'. We see scenes of young people being unable to cope practically and emotionally on their own. The ability, or otherwise, to make a cup of tea looms large. The production uses the set and a series of props quite well to show the turmoil that these individuals are experiencing. In one particularly effective scene a series of tables are brought in and placed between a care leaver and a social worker. These gradually expand the distance between the two of them as they speak.

There is also a powerful scene where a care leaver is struggling to prise information out of her mother about how she ended up in care. This is the culmination of a relationship that we see several times in the play. It turns out that she was brought into care after social workers had found her hiding under a table, having been there for a number of days following her mother leaving her to go on holiday with her new partner. As the tension rises and her mother refuses to give her this much-needed information, the set tilts and the actress slides under the table; a metaphor for where she started out in care and where she is found a few moments later by her social worker.

We also liked the representation of the social worker. On one level it is impossible to get right. There are good and bad ones, as in any profession. The actress appropriately showed the difficulties that many social workers face when dealing with heavy case loads and minimal scope.

For myself, another moving scene is right at the end. This shows one young person after another, after another, after another coming through the door of their new home, showing a range of feelings (hesitation, excitement, disappointment, fear amongst many others) then coming to stand centre stage. There are many young people in this scene who have not featured in the play at all, so the stage gets crowded. This final scene represents the huge numbers of young people leaving care and brings home to the audience that there are thousands of care leavers out there in the real world. In the London production (from 8th September), the current plan is to use local care leavers for this final scene of the play.

Both Jim and I thought the play was a very successful attempt to make a theatrical event out of a very complex subject. We did, however, differ on some aspects of the production. Whilst Jim thought that it a little confusing at first, not knowing who was who and how they were connected (or not)  -as he said, it took him about fifteen to twenty minutes to work this out - I thought the fact that these narratives were not open and outright was positive. We both thought that that the use of many different stories, rather than focussing in on one or two in depth, gave a good feel for the variety of experiences out there. It also gave a sense of the fact that many children in care and care leavers have lives that intermesh with each very profoundly, for good or ill.

We were also both pleased to see the plight of educationally ambitious young people on stage. This is often ignored by the stereotypes. Although Jim quite liked the fantasy and dance sequences, i did not. I thought that they were somewhat out of place and simplified the issues at hand. The sequence featuring restraint techniques, in particular, is likely to generate a variety of responses. We both agreed, though, that the humour was appropriate and, importantly, often very funny. This particularly applied to the scenes between a couple of estranged brothers (though their Scottish accents could be tricky). It was also needed at times to lift the ‘doom and gloom’ effect these issues inevitably bring.

The young cast had a big hand in helping to develop the story and this surely helped in imparting a sense that these are young people, not just care leavers. This comes across in a particular amusing and engaging 'party' scene and in other episodes. Although I did not see much of myself in the play, for every character they had on stage I could name at least one person that I had shared a room or a home with that reminded me of them. 

Whether you like this play or not you cannot doubt that they clearly have a talented bunch of actors and actresses. The acting was uniformly good and in some cases extremely powerful.It shows that they have used the research they have gained from over 100 care leavers well. We met the Director, Vicky Featherstone, for a drink beforehand and discovered that even the performers had been given summaries of the research to help them to develop their roles. Social workers and professionals had also been consulted, as well as policy documents. This latter leads to one of the most effective elements, where a leaving care manual is read out by a disembodied voice, helping to set the scene.

Overall, well worth the trip up to Edinburgh and a play that we would recommend anyone to go and see for themselves. It is on at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith from 8th to 27th September.