National Theatres ‘Small Island’ live at the Eye

Andrea Levy’s wonderful novel Small Island tells the story of post-war Caribbean migration, narrated from different perspectives.

Now, a sold-out stage production by London’s National Theatre will be screened live to Galway’s Eye Cinema next Thursday night, June 27, at 7pm.

Small Island, for which Levy won the Orange Prize, captures a journey from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War until 1948 – the year the now-famous ship, The Empire Windrush, docked at Tilbury, England.

The novel, and now 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 of Jamaica and the UK.

A company of 40 actors perform in the National Theatre’s timely production of this moving story, which is being screened live as part of National Theatre Live’s 10th birthday.

The era in which Small Island is set gave rise to Windrush Generation, a term referring the millions of people from various colonies of the Empire who were invited to Britain to help address a labour shortage there.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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