![]() ![]() They both get married to men they don’t know or get along with that well. I’ve always wanted Hortense and Queenie to have a cup of tea together and chat, because they have so much in common. Is this a comment on marriage for women in the 1940s and 50s? ![]() and also for Queenie, who marries the emotionally repressed Bernard. Marriage is a disappointment for Hortense, who marries Gilbert out of expediency. I heard that being in the audience was an experience in itself. One person would guffaw at something that another person found offensive and that’s tense. Later on in the play, we had people shouting things out like “Yes, that’s right!” or talking quietly among themselves. What it ultimately did was to open up a dialogue between the audience and the main characters. Everyone laughed at the strong physical reaction. I turned around and just curled up into a tiny ball on the floor. I wasn’t on stage at the time but I knew what it looked like. When it came to the direct address, I had to turn around to speak to the audience. I remember working on that first scene in rehearsals. CJ Beckford (Michael) and Leah Harvey (Hortense) in Small Island by Andrea Levy at the Olivier, National Theatre. ![]()
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