A novel from more than two decades ago, telling a story that begins over a century ago: what can an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s Small Island tell us in 2026? Plenty, it transpires, as Helen Edmundson’s adaptation is brought to the stage with gravitas and speaks to our current era with startling clarity.
Rufus Norris was in the chair for the original National Theatre production of the play in 2019. With its regional premiere, director Matthew Xia has breathed life into the piece by simply allowing it to exist in its period – he has not tinkered with either the sense of time or place. The costumes and the apparently simple set first place us between the two world wars that devastated Britain, then take us up to 1948, when the HMT Empire Windrush docked near London, before charting the freezing cold “welcome” those arriving from the Caribbean received from this small island.
The sprawling family epic tells the story of Gilbert, a Jamaican who joins the British war effort. When he returns to Britain, he moves in with Queenie, one of the few people who are willing to rent rooms to immigrants from the Caribbean. Gilbert is joined by his wife, Hortense, and their lives intertwine further when Queenie gives birth to a child.
Xia eschews trying to force a contemporary lens over the story because he doesn’t really need to: the events of Levy’s narrative echo all too recognisably today. Fear of foreign men “putting their hands” on “our” women? Tick. Distrust of dark-skinned strangers? Tick. Casual racism displayed by so-called allies? It’s all there. In a powerful speech, Gilbert (Daniel Ward) questions an abuser about why they feel they have superiority and reminds him that his white skin just makes him white, “that is all”. It could have been ripped from the pages of several modern essayists, from Reni Eddo-Lodge to Akala.
The play could feel depressingly familiar with the racist attitudes on display, and a reminder that we really haven’t ventured very far in the almost 80 years since the Windrush docked, but the promise of new life is enough to inject a note of optimism at the climax. With stellar performances across the cast and particularly magnetic work from Anna Crichlow as Hortense and Bronté Barbé as Queenie, this is a necessary history play that feels all too contemporary.
• At Leeds Playhouse until 28 March. Then at Birmingham Rep, 1-18 April, and Nottingham Playhouse, 28 April-16 May.
