Small Island at Leeds Playhouse
Demi Sheridan, Editorial AssistantBook now
Small Island
Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.
Leeds Playhouse presents the stage adaptation of Andrea Levy’s landmark novel Small Island. This performance brings the collisions and contradictions of Windrush-era Britain to the forefront, presenting multiple themes through people who feel real. People with vivid agendas, hard choices and moments that stay with you long after the lights go up.
Opening in Jamaica, late into the 1930s, you are introduced to Hortense. Hortense is proud, proper and fiercely ambitious. She dreams of moving to England, becoming a teacher, and building a future with her childhood friend Michael. But life intervenes. Hortense marries charismatic RAF veteran, Gilbert. He came with the promise of passage to the so-called Mother Country. But upon arriving in London, the reality of post-war Britain sets in.
London is Queenie’s home. A working-class Englishwoman whose forced independence through wartime has changed her views on life. Their stories collide when Queenie rents Hortense and Gilbert a room. Queenie lives with her husband Bernard, he has recently returned from service. His inner struggles to reconcile the world he left behind with the one he finds on his return start to seep out, his politeness clearly masking fear and prejudice.
Adapted by Helen Edmundson and directed by Matthew Xia, the production grounds its storytelling in detail and intentional atmosphere. Music is paired with scenes of rationing, tense domestics and crowded housing. The shifts in time and perspective, spanning decades and continents, give room for both humour and pathos. This is a story about life, and how it could truly be. Relationships strain, loyalties waver and moments of hope feel like a battle won, not a promise.
