Lenny Henry’s one-man Windrush play

Daniel Nelson

“… and that’s how I got to be here … in custody.”

And that’s the Windrush scandal, written by and starring Sir Lenny Henry at the Bush Theatre.

August in England is the story of 

          August Henderson

               black, sixties

“I wanted to tell a story about a guy who was born in Jamaica, came to Britain in the sixties on his mum’s passport, and had a life in the UK,“  Henry says in the introduction to the play text. “ Fifty-two years of paying taxes, working his socks off and being a citizen.

“The hostile environment affected many people. August Henderson is just one of them.”

Like all the Windrush experiences it’s a tragic and shocking story of injustice and racism. But Henry, who inhabits the part rather than acting it, gives it laughter and love and music.

For most of the 90 minutes it’s a black man’s story of growing up in Britain,  of going to school and finding work, of falling in love and having a family, of setting up a grocery business with a friend, of illness and death and an affair that starts at the dentist’s. 

It’s an everyday story, well told by a man with warmth who can entertain with accents and jokes but can also do poignance and shoulder-heaving desolation. Occasionally the actor’s mask is pushed aside by the comedian playing to the audience with dad jokes and knowing looks, but hopefully a firm director will give him the confidence to drop the habit. 

As in real life, the shattering Windrush moment does not occur until late in the play - about five-sixths of the way through. The news literally drops from the ceiling, a British life destroyed by a particularly heartless British form of outsourced bureaucracy (“You appear not to be a British citizen”).

To ram the point home, the piece ends with projections of the personal testimonies of Windrush veterans.

“Hope you enjoy the play,” writes Sir Lenny in his introduction to the text.

We do, and we also get the message.

* August In England, a one-man play about Windrush written and performed by Lenny Henry, from £12, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12, until 10 June. Info:Bush