Small Island
Following a sold-out run in 2019, the critically acclaimed production of Andrea Levy’s epic novel returns to the Olivier stage.
Hope and humanity confront cold reality in three intricately connected stories: Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots.
Helen Edmundson’s stage adaptation, featuring a company of 40 actors, traces the tangled history of Jamaica and the UK throughout the Second World War until 1948 – the year HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.
Please note:
This production contains strobe-like effects.
As part of depicting the experience of Jamaican immigrants to Britain after the Second World War, at times characters in the play use language which is racially offensive; for more information please contact us via our Help centre.
The footage used from 'Terminus 1961' and 'West Indies Calling' is Crown copyright and is reproduced with the permission of The British Film Institute under delegated authority from The Keeper of Public Records.
All other archive footage courtesy of British Pathé.
Talks and Events
Talks to be announced later in the year
