The Little Island Review – The Windrush Saga speaks to our times with startling clarity | stage

A A novel more than two decades old, telling a story that began more than a century ago: what can an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s Little Island tell us in the year 2026? Much of this is evident, as Helen Edmondson’s adaptation is engagingly brought to the stage and speaks to our current times with startling clarity.

Rufus Norris was head of the original production of the play at the National Theater in 2019. With its regional premiere, director Matthew Shea has brought this play to life by allowing it to exist in its period – not manipulating the sense of time or place. The seemingly simple costumes and setting place us between the two world wars that devastated Britain, and then take us to 1948, when the HMT Empire Windrush docked near London, before “welcoming” the bitter cold that greeted those arriving from the Caribbean from this small island.

The sprawling family saga 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 willing to rent rooms to immigrants from the Caribbean. Gilbert is joined by his wife, Hortense, and their lives are further intertwined when Queenie gives birth to a child.

Shea avoids trying to impose a contemporary lens on the story because he doesn’t really need to: the events of Levy’s novel echo too clearly today. Fear of foreign men “laying their hands” on our women? Mark. Distrust of dark-skinned strangers? Mark. The casual racism displayed by so-called allies? It’s all there. In a powerful speech, Gilbert (Daniel Ward) asks one of his attackers why he feels superior and reminds him that his white skin makes him white, “that’s all.” It has probably been ripped from the pages of many contemporary essayists, from Reni Eddo-Lodge to Akala.

The play can feel frustratingly familiar with the racist attitudes on display, a reminder that we haven’t really ventured much in the nearly 80 years since the Windrush docked, but the promise of new life is enough to add a touch of optimism at the climax. Thanks to the wonderful performances from the cast, especially the engaging work of Anna Crichlow as Hortense and Bronte Barbie as Queenie, this is an essential history play that feels very contemporary.