28th April Small Island

Today I had a little jolly out to the theatre to see Small Island at Nottingham Playhouse. Based around the events of th Windrush generation and the problems those first people coming from Jamaica has upon arriving and trying to be integrated in the UK, I didn't think it would be one that ticked many, if indeed, any boxes for TOM. 

It is a play that has won numerous awards and received great reviews during its run in the West End, and as tickets prices were 'reasonable' I thought I'd give it a punt. Plus I felt I just needed to do something different for a change.

Based on the novel of the same name by Andrea Levy ( I missed the BBC two part adaptation that is still available on IPlayer) this two act play revolves around four main characters, two immigrants from Jamaica arriving here on the Windrush sailings in the late 1940's and two British citizens whose house they come to share. 

The first half set in Jamaica introduces Hortense, a young woman determined to escape her restricted life in the Caribbean by becoming a schoolteacher in England. Achieving this by entering into a marriage of convenience with Gilbert, who having fought on the side of the British in World War 2 is determined to make his fortune in the ‘Mother Country’.

The second act shifts to London and highlights the couple’s struggles to adapt to the everyday racism of post-war Britain. Hortense discovers that her teaching qualifications are of little use in her new country. Offered lodging in her home by Queenie, one of the few white characters to treat them with genuine kindnesswho offers them lodging in her home. However, this fragile arrangement is disrupted by the return, having been declared 'missing in action' of her deeply racist husband Bernard. 

With a revolving stage that alternated between life in Hortense and Gilberts tiny one room flat compared with Queenies much more spacious and comfortable living area, the already difficult situation already complicated by 'concerned' neighbours questioning her choice of lodger, the whle affair is made even more complex still by the discovery that following a one night stand with Michael, who just happens to be Hortense's first love from back in Jamaica, Queenie is now pregnant and soon to give birth to a black baby boy.

With a running time of three hours, it is a long production, one that kept me up way, way past my bedtime, and yet despite a couple of occasions that seemed to be dragged out. it was a thouroughly engaging, moving and at times jaw dropping experience. 

I perhaps did expect that there might have been more members of the local Caribbean community in what was a predominanlty elderly, white middle class audience but given that this was only the opening night of a two week run, that might change in the days ahead.