The Chronic Youth Film Festival at the Barbican is a yearly event that offers young programmers the opportunity to craft a selection of international and British films, tied together under some common themes. This year marks the 7th edition of the festival and its return to theatres after two years of screenings online due to the pandemic. The chosen movies pivot around the central question of “Home” and what that means to those facing adversity.

The joint screening of the Dominican film ‘Bantú Mama’, and the Brazilian short documentary ‘Mother’ tied perfectly together, both navigating through themes of chosen families, newfound homes in hostile environments, music and the African diaspora.

Mother’s young directors Jas Pitt and Kate Stonehill believe in the exploration of conflict through creative devices and in the art of playing with genre convention. Their short documentary on the queer communities of artistic performers in Brazil delves into their stories, their trauma and the insoluble bond of solidarity that ties them together through dance and performance. We witness the heart-warming dynamics of the group and their theatre director, “Mother”, who acts as a confidante and a guide towards her pupils. We watch her help the healing process of her young artists, who share touching stories of assault and violence, through spiritualism, love and dance. Without overwhelming us with over-editing or over-politicisation, the film trusts its raw material and lets images and unscripted conversations speak for themselves. More than portraying a community, the film plunges us into a colourful and spectacular world of performance through beautiful imagery and music.

Bantú Mama is a Dominican film centred around the misadventure of Emmanuelle, a French-Cameroonian woman who is forced to hide from the police in the barrios of Santo Domingo. She finds refuge in the house of three parentless kids, who have become the adults of their own house and mend for themselves. An unconventional but joyful dynamic is quickly born, as the three bond over stories, music and hair, and the kids get to experience a glimpse of the childhood they were stripped of. But their harmony holds by a thread, and it is obvious that by staying there, the kids are destined to follow the same path of drug and weapon dealing as their family. The director Ivan Herrera is passionate about photography, which shows through the beautiful and deeply symbolic imagery and the creative use of colour. Clarisse Albrecht, writer and main star of the movie, uses many autobiographical elements that interweave with the character of Emmanuelle, such as her Franco-Cameroonian origins and her nostalgia for Africa. A very personal and cinematographically gorgeous film, that fits perfectly within the narrative of newfound homes.

Both the programming of the festival and the movies were remarkable and proved that the young programmers were more than up to the task that was given to them. Check out Barbican’s new events at https://www.barbican.org.uk.

Bantu Mama + Mother | Barbican Photography

Reviewed by Céline Galletti- Celine is a volunteer writer for Abundant Art. Originally from France and Italy, she follows her passion for writing and art by studying Comparative Literature at UCL, London. As an international student living in London, she is determined to fully experience and understand the city’s vibrant arts scene, and be a part of its creative storm.

The Young Vic’s latest production, The Collaboration imagines the often tumultuous, sometimes adoring relationship between pop culture icons Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Young Vic’s Kwame Kwei-Armah directs this world premiere of Anthony McCarten’s drama.

Seeing The Collaboration starts from halfway down the street. The heavy bass from the live DJ in the theatre reverberates through the dark entrance and to the queue outside. This high energy atmosphere continues inside, as the audience chat loudly and dance in the aisles. However, when the show begins there is a disconnect – for the most part, The Collaboration isn’t a party but an intimate conversation between two people.

Set in New York in 1984, The Collaboration begins as Andy Warhol’s popularity is declining and Jean-Michel Basquiat is up-and-coming. After both reluctantly agreeing to collaborate on a new exhibition, we follow their relationship as it matures – or at least how McCarten imagines it did.

With an entire cast of four people, we spend much of the time with just the two protagonists – luckily, both deliver fantastic performances. Paul Bettany’s Warhol is self-loathing and insecure, often enticing Basquiat into lengthy dialogues about his theories on the commodification of art. But he’s also funny, frequently delivering dry one-liners that send ripples of laughter through the audience. In The Collaboration Warhol hates paint – is scared of it. Whereas, for Jeremy Pope’s Basquiat, painting comes easy. At first, Basquiat is detached, having been forced into working with Warhol by their mutual gallerist, but it doesn’t take long for his vulnerability, warmth and passion to become evident.

The first half of The Collaboration sees the pair meet in Warhol’s studio. We witness their initial interactions – both guarded, a little closed off. Warhol seems to talk non-stop but gives little away, often picking up his video camera to further hide behind. Every time he does, we are focused in with clever lighting, as if looking through the lens ourselves. There is tension as Basquiat gets increasingly frustrated as the subject of Warhol’s film. This part is a slow burn, perhaps maybe losing steam a little towards the interval. 

However, in the second half, there is a definite shift – three years have passed and the pair are still working together, this time in Basquiat’s loft apartment. Upon entering the stage, Basquiat runs to Warhol, greeting him with a long embrace. Here, Bettany and Pope do a remarkable job of entirely shifting their body language to portray close friends. 

The Collaboration explores a lot; relationships, racial discrimination, police brutality, the art market, sexuality… but much like Warhol’s approach to art (according to The Collaboration, anyway), just on the surface. That said, The Collaboration is a thoroughly enjoyable, often hilarious production. 

The Collaboration runs at the Young Vic Theatre until 2 April 2022 and tickets are available here.

Reviewed by Amy Melling – Amy is a Curator and Creative Producer whose practice is centred around community-led arts projects. Her current research is focused on curatorial methods for exhibiting artworks outside. Amy has a keen interest in the arts and recently completed an MA in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.

When finding out there was a penis museum in Iceland, Vagina Museum founder Florence Schechter was curious whether a vagina museum existed. After finding out it didn’t she decided that if nobody else would create one, she would create one! The museum held several pop-ups around the country including “Exhibitionist” and “Is Your Vagina Normal?” and was given its first permanent residence at Camden Market in October 2019. It debuted its first exhibition Muff Busters: Vagna Myths and How to Fight Them, which drew on the importance of knowing about gynaecological anatomy and how it works whilst debunking myths about vaginas.

The museum was left without a home for a while after its lease at Camden Market ended, but has now been able to find a new home located at ENTER in Bethnal Green. This space is three times larger than their previous location and also includes a performance space, cafe and working space. In preparation for the launch of the new venue, a campaign titled “Neighbours” has been introduced to  East London. It consists of 16 posters of artwork that combine known establishments in the area with a play on knowledge and the anatomy of vaginas. Furthermore, the new location launches with a new and improved version of their exhibition Periods: A Brief History. The exhibition takes us on a journey through history right up from ancient times until the 21st century and gives us insight and information on myths, legends, cultures and customs. The exhibition also has interactive features such as a wall in which you can add your thoughts on what the future of periods will be like, and a whiteboard where you are encouraged to draw how people in ancient times would have menstruated. It also includes visuals such as how period products such as the period belt from previous centuries looked. On top of this exhibition, there is a permanent exhibition with basic knowledge about the vagina. It’s a space including visuals on the anatomy, the “clit wall” which showcases all the different and varied ways a clitoris can look, and information on vagina-related issues.

On top of educating and stomping out stigma and sensationalism associated with vaginas, the vagina museum makes sure to be inclusive and welcoming to all and this is felt whilst on the premises.

The Vagina Museum reopened on 19th March 22, it is free admission and open to people of all ages and genders.

www.vaginamuseum.co.uk 

Reviewed by Lian Lakhope. Lian is a MA Global Media and Communications student at SOAS and a volunteer writer for Abundant Art. Lian has written for a number of different publications, mostly about music, culture and film and she is enthusiastic about expressing her passion for creating art and media.

If you prick us, do we not bleed?  by Ali Cherri, current Artist in Residence at The National Gallery, introduces cabinets of curiosity into the heart of the Sainsbury Wing, containing assembled fragments and sculptural installations. These allow us to discuss how histories of trauma can be explored through a response to museum and gallery collections.

Born in Beirut in 1976, Ali Cherri is the second Artist in Residence at the National Gallery. His residency is part of the National Gallery’s new Modern and Contemporary Programme launched in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Society, and in partnership with the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry to display new work in their spaces. The programme connects the world’s most innovative artists with the nation’s iconic collection.

Starting with research into the Gallery’s archive, Cherri has uncovered accounts of five National Gallery paintings that were vandalised while on display-The Virgin and Child with saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Leonardo Da Vinci (1499-1500); The Madonna of the Cat, Federico Barocci (1575); The Toilet of Venus, Diego Velasquez (1647-51); Self Portrait at The Age of 63, Rembrandt (1699); The Adoration of the Golden Calf; Nicholas Poussin (1633-4). Presented in five vitrines reminiscent of early museum displays and surrounded by Renaissance paintings that depict wounded figures and suffering, Cherri’s installations appear like relics, mortal remains of what these works once were, of what they could have been. As we see in The Madonna of The Cat, after Barocci (2022), the affliction has repercussions on the little goldfinch that baby Jesus playfully clutches in his hand in the original painting, slashed by a knife in 1990. The bright red markings around his beak, which are thought to come from a drop of blood that fell from Jesus Christ as he carried the cross to his crucifixion, now become the emblem of the living wound inflicted by the blade that tore him from his innocence, rendering him lifeless under the crushing weight of a porcelain cast of a hand sculptured by the Lebanese artist.

Cherri’s works are yet to find peace after the mutilations suffered. They are still vulnerable, made of clay or changed into something else “to become beastly”, as in the case of the golden calf depicted in Poussin’s work that was vandalised with spray paint. Cherri chooses a lamb that dies from severe birth anomalies to represent the metamorphosis. By translating each injured work into a series of objects partially castigated and handicapped, the artist reminds us that we are never truly the same after experiencing violence.

The exhibition reveals the role played by the public’s highly emotional response to these aggressions, finding that newspaper articles would describe the damages as if they were lesions inflicted on a living being, even referring to the conservators as “surgeons”. This humanization of artworks and the overwhelming urge to heal, hide and alleviate their pain is implicitly addressed in the title which recalls Shylock’s words at the beginning of the third act of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?”, highlighting how the collective response to trauma and violence is the trauma itself. Through the use of mixed media that recall certain aspects of each painting, he envisions a new life for them following the assaults, and he invites us to reflect on the decisions we make about how we display trauma and to what extent we are willing to cope with the aftermath.

The exhibition brings into question the ‘politics of visibility’ which, as John Berger had already amply expressed in Ways of Seeing (1972), identifies within the image a political effectiveness that ties directly to relations of power, that is the relationship between what we see and what we know. Do the ways in which these artworks have been damaged influence the way we look at them? How far did the damages contribute to turning these works into masterpieces? The desire to tell the stories of these five paintings is certainly dictated by the need to rethink the role of a museum in times of crisis. Equally intuitive is the choice of exhibiting his works in vitrines, to contrast the very nature of the original paintings and the place where they are currently exhibited. The glass that separates the visitor from the artworks thus acts as a shield against possible attacks that can further alter the essence of the original works, preserving them in the safe and circumscribed space of the cabinets as collectible items. But it is also a symbol of the frailty that characterizes them and the vulnerability which they are exposed to, under the prying eyes of those who observe them with curious sympathy.

Cherri’s interest in the aesthetics, practices and politics of classifications and collecting in museums emerges in the staging of this exhibition and the decisions we make about how we experience, and to what extent, we accept trauma within museums.

16^th March-12^th June 2022, Sainsbury Wing, Room 57-58-59, Free admission.

More information at nationalgallery.org.uk

Danielle Dean’s multi-channel video installation, Amazon, focuses on exploitation, isolation and labour, in the latest instalment of Tate’s Art Now series. 

Dean’s multimedia work is placed in a dark room behind heavy wooden doors. Four portrait television screens stand staggered in the foreground and a large landscape screen stands in the background. Potted plants are dispersed between them – luscious green leaves with bursts of bright pink occasionally illuminated by the glare. On the large screen, the ‘assistant’ stands in front of a painted backdrop, staged like the protagonist in a 1930s movie. In fact, the whole scene is reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz – illustrated landscape, melodic voices, underlying sense of unease in every scene. 

Amazon investigates the changing nature of labour in an increasingly neo-liberal economy. Responding to Dean’s research in the archives of the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, the video starts in Fordlandia, a city founded by Henry Ford in 1928 in the Amazon rainforest. Initially built to control rubber production, Ford enforced brutal working hours and mistreated workers, resulting in a mass rebellion and the eventual abandonment of the site in 1934. This failed production line is paralleled with footage of individual accounts of workers from ‘Amazon Mechanical Turk’ (AMT), the e-commerce company Amazon.com’s labour-crowdsourcing marketplace. At AMT hiring a worker is as transactional as buying a printer. 

In the video installation, the workers are confined to individual screens, in their individual homes, sometimes engaging with one another but always remote. They account stories of their employment, each required to complete ‘human interaction tests’ in order to train artificial intelligence algorithms. Completing a role that will eventually assist in their own obsolescence, they answer questions to enable computers to accurately mimic human interaction. Consequently and echoing the revolt in Fordlandia, the workers become increasingly frustrated. Vines creep in and insects buzz around them. They bat them away with rolled-up newspapers. Are the workers rebelling or becoming defunct, grown over? It’s hard to tell.

Often, Amazon sits between reality and a sort of collective hallucination – this liminal space reflecting the almost-human computer software the workers are developing. A heavy combination of surreal and sinister, Dean’s work draws you in and keeps you focused until the end. It is a deeply concerning exploration into our capitalist futures and very real present, where workers are increasingly alienated and mechanised. The only hope is radical action, letting nature reinhabit the factory. 

ART NOW: Danielle Dean, ‘Amazon’ is showing at Tate Britain until 8th May 2022. It is free to enter and was curated by Nathan Ladd, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Tate.

Art Now Danielle Dean Amazon / Tate Photography (Jai Monghan)

On the nights of the 5 and 6 March, the stage of the Barbican was taken over by a joyous army of over 100 dancers, as the hip-hop company Boy Blue celebrated its 21st birthday with its show “A night with Boy Blue”. Everything from the music, talent, choreographies, creativity and rhythm of the evening were irresistible to say the least, although none of it compared to the sense of community and festivity that emanated both from the stage and the audience. Most dance moves were followed by roars of cheerful exclamations by the public, as even the dancers would encourage each other on stage. The show managed to beautifully encapsulate the entire spirit of hip-hop in a two-hour show, and deserved every second of the standing ovation it received at the end.

The magnetising energy of the show was already clear from the opening, a collective dance routine that retraced the main years and performances of Blue Boy. The dynamic vitality of people going on and off the scene, improvising solos, cheering and high-fiving created a cadenced flow that combined beautifully with the compelling light work and rhythmic digital music. This followed with various choreographies that experimented with different sounds, costumes and styles, jumping from dreamy existentialism to funky comedy in the bat of an eye. Despite the multitude and variety of dancers, soundtracks and choreographies, the dances combined perfectly and succeeded one another with great brio.

In addition to the herculean energy of the show, what stood out the most was the variety within the show: not only with the performances, which offered a pattern of different themes, ambiance and music but also with the performers. Seeing a spectrum of dancers of all ages, gender, sizes and race was extremely refreshing and showcased the mentality of inclusion and accessibility that is typical of hip-hop. Even young kids were given a chance to perform, and the dance of the five youngest dancers of the team to the beat of famous TikTok dances was particularly heart-warming.

The evening was hosted by the founders of the MC and musician Michael ‘Mikey J’Asante and choreographer Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy, who occasionally interrupted the show to make sure everyone was having a good time. It was clear how much work and passion had been put into their project and the efforts made to develop hip-hop in the UK. The evening was not only a performance but a real experience of immersion in the culture of hip-hop, a culture of movement, freedom, inclusivity and enjoyment at its purest state.

Check out other Barbican events at: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/theatre-dance 

Boy Blue Photo: Phil Robertson

Reviewed by Céline Galletti- Celine is a volunteer writer for Abundant Art. Originally from France and Italy, she follows her passion for writing and art by studying Comparative Literature at UCL, London. As an international student living in London, she is determined to fully experience and understand the city’s vibrant arts scene, and be a part of its creative storm.

“Cockroach” is Jacksons Lane’s new show that ran on two consecutive nights on the 3rd and 4th of March. Chloe Mantripp’s one-woman show created a perfect mix of dance, music, acting and physical performance to build a hybrid form of storytelling that kept the audience invested throughout. It felt less like a monologue and more like a conversation that the character was having with us, whilst nonchalantly brushing her teeth or doing her hair. With her seemingly careless and ironical tone, she addresses a range of subjects going from complex socio-political subjects to deeply psychological themes.

Our heroine is a prostitute with a gritty sense of humour who welcomes us in what seems to be her home. Half-woman, half-insect, repugnant yet seductive in her red underwear set: we are conflicted on whether we are repelled or intrigued. We are put in front of a particular segment of our society, where a living being is used and forgotten by everyone and is condemned to rot in filth like a literal cockroach. Mantripp flirts with the limits of the disgusting and uses it as a shock factor, as she pulls a used condom out of her hair, pours shampoo directly into her eye and happily rolls in the dirt. However, the character is still somehow endearing, as her cheerfulness, humour and simplicity add a light-hearted appeal to the play.

The expressivity of Mantripp’s performance principally comes from the extreme physicality and energy that she showcased. Her narration was punctuated by energetic dances, acting bits, impressive physical stunts and an extremely touching final hair hang performance, hair hang being a form of aerial dance where the performer is hung by their hair. This performative aspect of the play has to do with Jacksons Lane’s role as the leading supporter of contemporary circus in the UK. The character could be summed up as a sort of sad clown that juggles between the pathetic, the tragic and the whimsical.

Mantripp’s performance carried the show from start to finish engaging its audience in the exploration of the journeys of the abandoned and the neglected.

Check out Jacksons Lane’s upcoming shows at jacksonslane.org.uk

Photo credit: jacksonslane.org.uk

Reviewed by Céline Galletti- Celine is a volunteer writer for Abundant Art. Originally from France and Italy, she follows her passion for writing and art by studying Comparative Literature at UCL, London. As an international student living in London, she is determined to fully experience and understand the city’s vibrant arts scene, and be a part of its creative storm.

2020 marked the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death (1483–1520) and London’s museums responded to the occasion with events and exhibitions celebrating one of the most influential artists of all times. The British Museum dedicates this exhibition to the elaborate drawings of the Italian High Renaissance master and traces his influence through the works of his pupils.

The 29 works on display- 14 made by Raphael himself- highlight Raphael’s development as a draughtsman and his journey from the provincial scene of Urbino in central Italy, to establishing himself as the dominant painter, architect, and all-round artistic designer at the Papal court in Rome. To accompany the works of Raphael, there is a selection of pen and brown ink drawings by his talented students- Perino del Vaga, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Giulio Romano, Giovanni Francesco Penni, and Tommaso Vincidor- who continued to draw with a similar inventive approach enlightened by a humanist spirit. The exhibition offers a historical insight into Italy between the 15th and 16th centuries. It reiterates the central role that the Church and the various lordships of Italy have played not only in the professional success of the artists and intellectuals but above all in realising that ideal of a culture’s vision of itself, which is only typical to the Renaissance. Recurring themes addressed by the artists of the time were religious iconography – The Virgin and Child, the Resurrection of Christ, or the Entombment of Christ-, the call to antiquity and classic culture, including historical references to Ancient Greece and Rome interpreted according to the dictates of a modern and Christian taste, the study of nature and of Man. Practical exercise on drawing, through the study of life and from copies and models, was considered the most important element of the student’s curriculum.

Raphael was able to explore these ideas and then direct his studio and school to realise them in a wide variety of media. This clearly emerges in the works of Giovanni Francesco Penni, who played a key role in Raphael’s productive workshop, including making final designs for paintings, some based on preliminary sketches by his master, and completing some of Raphael’s commissions after his death in 1520, alongside his colleague Giulio Romano. Many of his paintings and drawings, such as The Dormition of the Virgin (c. 1511), were previously attributed to Raphael. In-depth studies on the technique and stylistic precision have refuted the authorship of the works. Despite being incredibly skilled, Penni failed to establish himself as an independent artist after Raphael’s death. His works however are a clear testimony to the incredible opportunity that the school offered to its students, many of whom became acclaimed artists and were courted by the noble and wealthiest families of Italy. Such is the case of Giulio Romano whose works were highly appreciated by the ruling Gonzaga family in Mantua, partly because of his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism which helped define the late 16th-century style known as Mannerism. In his drawing A frieze with acanthus and animals (c. 1540-146), used as a model for a stucco decoration for the ducal palace, the decorative concepts typical of Raphael’s painting are amplified in forms that appear to be affected by gigantism.

Renaissance artists were not only worried about the subject but also about the execution – what was painted and the style in which it was painted. To this extent, close observation of nature, particularly human anatomy, and the application of scientific principles to the use of perspective and light (‘chiaroscuro’) undergo significant developments. Unique importance was given to the representation of the human figure and was considered the most qualifying aspect of the artwork.

Raphael visibly changed his harmonic and soft vision in the figurative, expressed in the graceful beauty and elegance of the Virgin’s face in his studio for The Virgin and Child (1509) which became bold and accentuated, with flashy views, plays of light and shadow and nocturnal lighting. This dramatic twist becomes self-evident in the drawings for Raphael’s final painting the Transfiguration, which represents the head of an apostle and that of St Andrew (c. 1518) where the attitudes of the characters are charged with vigour and a new expressive dynamic.

Raphael knew in depth all the pictorial experiences of his period – from the constructiveness of the Tuscan painters to the colourism of the Venetian ones -, and this gave him the opportunity to reconcile the calm and simple elegance of his early works in the style Perugino, with the power of the sixteenth century sculptural mature style. One of the most remarkable drawings displayed in the exhibition is Raphael’s David (1505). Raphael makes a free copy of Michelangelo’s David, adapting the figure to a viewpoint which in real life would be impossible from any one angle.

Central to Raphael’s success as a draughtsman was his brilliance in analysing and absorbing the work of his contemporaries, most notably Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Michelangelo (1475–1564), without compromising the poetic spirit that reigns in his own works, and that he transferred to his students.

2 February – 15 May 2022

Daily: 10.00–17.00

Room 90a

Free, just drop in.

For more information visit:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/raphael-and-his-school-drawing-connections

Raphael(1483-1520) David, after Michelangelo c. 1505 Pen and brown ink, over traces of lead paint / Photography Rachele Nizi

Reviewed by Rachele Nizi- After completing her MA in Reception of the Classical World at UCL, Rachele joined Abundant Art as a creative writer. Her British and Italian origins have inspired her to want to study Art History and European Literatures, with an interest in the afterlife of antiquity in the Western tradition.

Affecting, funny, pertinant — after a sold out run in 2019, Small Island, the play adaptation of the late Andrea Levy’s novel, has returned to the National Theatre.

Small Island sees the lives of the three main characters entwined as they navigate love, war and discrimination. Queenie (Mirren Mack), the daughter of Lincolnshire pig farmers and Hortense (Leonie Elliott), a schoolteacher in Jamaica, both marry as a means of escape. Over the course of three hours, the multifaceted characters are introduced one by one, linked by a desire to improve their futures, but controlled by their circumstances.   

At the break of the Second World War, the third protagonist, Gilbert (Leemore Marrett Jr) and Queenie’s husband, Bernard (Martin Hutson) enlist in the armed forces to support the United Kingdom. The sound design in this part is jarring; air raid sirens, bombs detonating, verbal abuse. We follow Gilbert as he experiences both racial discrimination and comradery.  

Somehow, the second half of Small Island is even more intense. After serving in the war, Gilbert and his new wife, Hortense are sold a dream of endless possibilities in post-war Britain. However, upon arriving in the ‘mother country’, they are met with hostility. The protagonist’s paths cross in London where, due to governmental neglect and entrenched racism, Hortense and Gilbert are forced to rent a tiny bedsit in Queenie and Bernard’s house. After returning home from a period of absence, Bernard, the epitome of ignorance and misguided fear, is the most hostile of all. The exchanges between the characters here are shocking, they cause unease to radiate through the theatre. Throughout the performance, the entire cast delivers powerful and emotive performances, however, in the second half Leemore Marrett Jr shines through, captivating the audience with his every word.

Katrina Lindsay’s sets are also spectacular, fluidly transformed in seconds by subtle details. Jars of sweets on shelves ascend from the ceiling to place Queenie in her Aunt’s corner shop and wheeled-on, multi-story staircases bring us into her townhouse. At several points, a large white sail, projected with archival footage, is stretched across the width of the stage. As the actors board HMT Empire Windrush in Small Island, we see clips of real people doing the same in 1948 – reminding us that this is far from just a story. 

Small Island is an incredibly accessible introduction to the horrendous acts by the UK government to the ‘Windrush generation’. This gut-wrenching reality is palpable in every scene. However, Small Island is also full of humanity, resilience, warmth and laughter. Ultimately, it speaks of the power of forging connections at the bleakest of times.

Small Island is running at the National Theatre until 30 April and tickets are available here.

Leonie Elliott in Small Island at the National Theatre – Windrush (Johan Persson)

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