National Theatre at Home: Small Island

Filmed live during its sold-out run in 2019, the National Theatre’s epic production of Andrea Levy’s Orange Prize-winning novel is streaming with National Theatre at Home to mark Windrush Day 2020.

Small Island embarks on a journey from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.

The play follows 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. Hope and humanity meet stubborn reality as the play traces the tangled history between Jamaica and the UK.

A company of 40 actors take to the stage of the Olivier Theatre in this timely and moving story.

BBFC rating 15 when released in cinema. 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.

Watch Here

Small Island, adapted by Helen Edmundson and directed by Rufus Norris, is streaming for free with National Theatre at Home from 7pm UK time on Thursday 18 June, until 7pm UK time on Thursday 25 June 2020. It is subtitled. The running time is 2hrs 55mins with a very short interval.

If you’d like to support the National Theatre, you can donate here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or text NTATHOME 10 to 70085 to donate £10, or NTATHOME 20 to donate £20.