Photo: Tristram Kenton
The Big Life Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London E15
The wave of Caribbean immigration in the late Forties and Fifties has been well documented, but not with the exuberance of The Big Life. The ska musical charts the geographical and emotional journey of four young West Indians who arrive on the Windrush, after promising to abstain from women.
Writer Paul Sirett borrows the romantic premise from Love's Labour's Lost and makes their puritanical work ethic both comical and believable. Of course, as soon as they find lodgings they start pining for the fairer sex, in this case an attractive quartet of fellow immigrants.
The lively score encompasses ska, soca, calypso and big band jazz, while some of the booty-shaking choreography belongs to a ragga video. The patois is authentic and there are a number of jokes at the expense of various islands, especially by Tameka Empson (Three Non Blondes), who plays Ms Aphrodite, a ribald pensioner who functions as a one-woman Greek Chorus.
The comedy is often as broad as the actors' accents, although there are moments of pathos when the characters reflect, in song, on their disappointing experiences. Overall this is a celebration of a brave generation, and thankfully it doesn't try to put them on a pedestal.
