MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
The Fellowship
Hampstead Theatre
1 July 2022
IT’S great to see Hampstead Theatre stepping out of its comfort zone with this unequivocal, in-depth penetration of a world where cultural origin is a daily call to arms.
The fellowship of the title is the bond between two sisters of Caribbean descent who painstakingly carve out uncharted lives in an England where being “black” not only shapes their lives but continues repeatedly to blitz them with heartbreak and trauma.
It’s also the baton-passing journey of three generations from Windrush, through the Broadwater Farm eruption, to the new, destabilising world of Brexit and Covid where the future is up for grabs, and all are at the mercy of forces greater than themselves.
MARY CONWAY is spellbound by superb performances in Arthur Miller’s study of the social and personal stress brought about by Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht
For generations black women have shaped Britain’s activism, arts and public life despite exclusion and discrimination. ZITA HOLBOURNE pays tribute to these political trailblazers and cultural icons, whose courage continues to inspire
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
MARY CONWAY applauds the success of Beth Steel’s bitter-sweet state-of-the-nation play


