Notes From A Small Island

Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson was first published in 1995 and spent three years in The Sunday Times bestsellers list. It sold over two million copies and in 2003, was voted by Radio 4 listeners as ‘The book that best represented England’. In this adaptation by Tim Whitnall, Bill travels the length and breadth of Britain rediscovering the green and pleasant land he now calls his home.

American Bryson first visited the UK in 1973, which is where we first meet Bill, excellently portrayed by Laurence Hill, as he arrives on a ferry from Calais. After a short exploration of the country, he falls in love with our ‘Small Island’, meets and falls in love with his wife-to-be, Cynthia, marries her, and after a short hop back to the USA to complete his education, returns to England to start a family, work as a journalist and celebrate his adopted homeland. Hill is never off the stage and must be congratulated in this huge role for his wonderful memory at least !.

Whitnall’s amusing and extremely wordy travelogue script, allows us to join Bill on this journey during Act 1, meeting a whole host of different characters along the way. The other talented and versatile ensemble members – Helen Bowman, Ian Cairns, Fiona Jones, Hayley Moy, Andrew Neale and Alex Swan are to be congratulated for multi role characterisation, playing over 80 in total, as only Bill remains as himself throughout.

Act 2 is a very fast-moving adventure as Bill retraces the journey he took in 1973, with the view of writing a book about it. He finds many differences in 90’s Britain, and not all of them are favourable (in fact, barely any are !). It is much more comical and faster paced than the first act and as such, seems a little chaotic in places. But this enhances the sense of time passing and the world around him moving on.

Such a technically complicated and very wordy production as this must have been a nightmare to direct, but co-directors Ali Broughton and Ann Leake can be pleased and proud of their efforts, as can the rest of the production team and backstage help. Special mention of the stage crew of Kathryn Hay, Phil Emmerson and Hugh Mackintosh under the watchful eyes of Stage Manager Richard Hay and Assistant SM Mathew Hall for quick and seamless scene changes. The projected scenery slideshow operated by James Elliott, with lighting by Tony Hall and sound by Andy Gilmore were also vital to the success of this show, making good use of the small playing space. Well done !.

The costuming was very clever, aptly helping to define the many roles portrayed, as were the superb props by Fraire Armstrong, Lyndsey Spark and Lesley Crawford. I also have to praise Andrew Neale for the original music and the ensemble for their excellent singing.

At the end of this production, I found myself feeling pleasingly patriotic, but also aware of how different our green and pleasant land is now, compared to Bryson’s journey in 1973 and also in 1995. As Bill says to Cynthia in the final scene: ‘What a wonderful place this is. Crazy as f**k of course, but wonderful’.

Many thanks for the invitation from Regional Councillor Peter, my companion Pauleen and me. We all enjoyed our evening.

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