Nicola Gardner
Nicola Gardner
Hello & Welcome to The Windrush Warriors!
This successful theatre show is a potential TV series. The Windrush Warriors presents a hilarious and sometimes poignant story of 4 brave African-Caribbean pensioners who imagined a peaceful later life & are now dealing with an unexpected challenge – the infamous Windrush scandal. These older generation African-Caribbean, fun-loving friends exchange banter & indulge in laugh a minute wordplay. Together these 4 pensioners interact with varying degrees of response to this very real threat to their lives and they strike a balance between comedy and sobering drama. The fact that the script is based on true events makes for an interesting, socially conscious show, depicting an imperfect world.
It’s an affectionate story about people in the autumn of their lives. The show is a life-affirming view of survivors, children of the Windrush generation. They’re retired and spend their days hanging out in a downtown community centre playing dominoes, knitting and bantering -it saves on fuel bills. However a bombshell threatens to shatter their cosy retirement. They’re having their immigration status investigated. But wait a minute, they are British citizens aren’t they? Well not according to this Conservative government. Citizenship has to be proved, and damn quick otherwise they face deportation. The Windrush scandal and its attendant hypocrisy is laid bare in this show. It’s an important message embracing untouchable subjects and highlighting current events.
The play embraces untouchable subjects and speaks to current events. These fearless protagonists refuse to be bullied or harassed and so ‘The Windrush Warriors’ fight back group is born and headquarters is the lounge at the local community centre.
The cast is a colourful array of diverse characters. The Receptionist of the centre is a 50 something African woman with an anarchic streak. Her trademark is outrageous provocative language expressed to all via the tannoy system. She thinks she is very much in charge and spends her days swanning about dispensing dubious customer service and threatening to bar anyone and everyone.
Her second in command is Robbie the Rasta Caretaker who wears dreadlocks, a Bob Marley hat and walks and talks like a black guy. There’s just one small problem, Robbie is white and lives with his mum in Fallowfield, not the Ghetto. Robbie spends most of his time in the caretaker’s room smoking weed and writing freedom poetry. Robbie thinks he’s a black rasta trapped in a white man’s body. Anyone black is of great interest to Robbie and he tries endlessly to build rapport with the African-Caribbean pensioners.
The play unfolds through fast paced storytelling to offer an entertaining perspective on a complex subject matter that many people have never even heard about. The cast interact hilariously and strike a balance between comedy and sobering drama. The fact that the script is based on true events makes for an interesting, socially conscious show, depicting an imperfect world. The Pensioners share funny and heart-breaking insight into the experience of Caribbean migrants who helped to shape the UK and are now being treated like undesirables. And their answer to this treatment? To fight adversity with Warrior like ferocity!
