THE LONELY LONDONERS

Kiln Theatre

★★★★

“a moving, funny and exhilarating play”

Bristling with excellent performances from an outstanding ensemble class, The Lonely Londoners is a powerful tale of migration, adaptation and the struggles of getting by in a cold and unwelcoming city. Director Ebenezer Bamgboye brings Roy Williams’ critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Sam Selvon’s seminal novel on the Windrush Generation to the Kiln Theatre for a second run with the original cast, following a successful debut last year at the Jermyn Street Theatre.

Central to the novel is its oral quality. Foregrounding the intricacies and rhythms of Caribbean English, the characters tell their stories of love and flirtation, experiences of racism, employment difficulties, and battles with the cold, and capturing this style and energy presents challenge to any adaptor, and the play meets this challenge successfully. The sparse stage setting (work of Laura Ann Price), consisting of six packing boxes – one for each character, centres the narratives told by the characters. Much of the action unfolds in the flat of lead character Moses (played brilliantly by Solomon Israel), a longstanding migrant from Trinidad living in London, who helps new arrivals and others find their feet. Within his house, his friends and acquaintances bum cigarettes and share stories, the minimalist staging focusing attention onto the language and storytelling of its characters.

This is reinforced by the innovative lighting design by Elliot Griggs, with a backdrop of lighted squares that change colour, brighten and darken, and flash in intense strobe-like patterns, echoing the narrative and this is supported by modern musical choices. Complementing the experimental lighting are sung sections performed with ethereal beauty by Aimée Powell – in the role of Moses’ partner in Trinidad – and interpretive dance sections which convey those emotions that the men struggle to easily express through speech. This expressionistic layer adds further depth to play.

All the performers are fantastic. Romario Simpson excels in the role of Galahad, a loud-talking new arrival determined to make London his. Gilbert Kyem Jnr shines as Big City, a physically imposing ‘hustler’ who struggles to remember places names, to great comedic effect. Shannon Hayes and Carol Moses are alternately moving and hilarious as mother- (Tanty) and daughter-in-law (Agnes), brought over to London on the back of stories of success from their son and husband, Lewis, played by Tobi Bakare. In placing Tanty and Agnes’ stories at the centre of the play, the new adaptation inserts female experience into a narrative which, in its original telling, was very masculine dominated.

Tobi Bakare’s performance deserves special mention, as Lewis provides an insight into the questions that are the heart of the play. We see his struggles most clearly as he battles against unemployment in a patriarchal society that places a man’s work as his purpose, racism in a country that told him it was his Motherland, his own misogynistic double standards that cause him to become jealous of his wife and finally alcohol, which he turns to quiet the inside of his head. Through all these profound emotional changes, Bakare is compelling to watch, especially in his struggle to write down his feelings when prompted by Moses.

The Lonely Londoners is a moving, funny and exhilarating play, and the difficulties and successes of its characters are a captivating narrative. Its final note is a love letter to London, a city that is as tough, beautiful, worn down and resilient as the characters themselves.

THE LONELY LONDONERS

Kiln Theatre

Reviewed on 16th January 2025

by Rob Tomlinson

Photography by Steve Gregson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) | ★★★★★ | November 2023

HE LONELY LONDONERS

THE LONELY LONDONERS

E LONELY LONDONERS