Nat'l Theater SMALL ISLAND - A Golden Play about Racism in UK/Jamaica and Today

The Nat'l Theater Live is presenting some of their best theatrical productions on youtube for everyone to enjoy.  SMALL ISLAND (SI) which streamed "live" yesterday & available for viewing until June 25th is not to be missed.  The 3 hr 2 Act production doesn't have to be viewed in 1 sitting.  I was completely captivated by author/playwright Andrea Levy's Orange Prize winning play based on her novel the 3 hours hit me like a powerful tempest and drenched me in its profundity & prescient issues of systemic racism & hatred.  Levy co-adapted her Man Booker winning novel to stage with award winning author & playwright Helen Edmundson. Both accomplished women are British: Levy (b 1956-2019) & Edmundson (b 1964).  Levy was elected a Fellow for the Royal Soc. of Lit. ('05).  The utter brilliance of the writing and themes compare somewhat to Hansberry's "Raisin in the Sun."  SI set in Jamaica and the UK 1930s-1950) examines the atrocities of racism & war, but also humanity found in strength & dignity.  The play begins with a tempest.  A young, black woman, Hortense tells the audience this is "a great love story."  The cleverly staged production depicts an approaching monsoon.  Everyone's rushing for shelter except for Hortense & the young, white teacher she assists in the schoolhouse.  Hortense remains anticipating that the man she loves will come to her rescue.  The white teacher is cowering under a table calling out "where is he".  Hortense takes this to mean her husband. Turns out it's Michael a black man & Hortense's assumed paramour.  Michael shockingly rushes to embrace the other woman. Our hearts shatter with Hortense's.  We're swept away in the maelstrom of war, intertwining lives & racial divides that are malevolent, oppressive though sometimes uplifting.  Queenie is a young white woman raised on her family's farm.  Queenie yearns for more than her arduous, unfulfilling life.  Hortense is raised in her cousin Michael's home by her strict, pious & opinionated aunt& uncle.  They keep Hortense subservient & obedient which givers her pretense & a rebellious spirit.  As children, the cousins form a rivalrous friendship.  Hortense is saddened when Michael is sent to boarding school.  He returns years later.  Feelings of sexual attraction abound. Michael returns with a bigger picture of the world and his presumed place in it. He's adulterous, inter-racial scandal & defiance to his father return him to England.  After WWII Hortense & other Jamaicans look to getting off their small island for a bigger, more worldly life in the UK.  Black soldiers fought alongside the Brits but find they're spurned in the community despite having fought to end fascism & persecution.  Elwood, a Jamaican known by the islanders has a small but insightful role "WWII is a white man's war and the world belongs to whites off the island." Queenie seized her opportunity to expand her horizons as did Hortense.  Hortense makes a financial, loveless deal to marry Gilbert and pays for his voyage back to the UK provided he sends for her.  The lives of Hortense, Michael, Queenie & Gilbert intwine in ways that are not tolerated by white society.  The contrived connections only enforce powerful emotions that are painful & promising.  I promise SMALL ISLAND is a major theatrical force with a great cast & profound writing.