Author: Caryl Phillips
Year: 2019
Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom
Synopsis: This collection contains the following plays
a) Strange Fruit is a powerful exploration of racial identity, generational trauma, and silence within a fractured Anglo-Caribbean family in 1980s Britain. As two brothers seek belonging through radical politics and romanticized roots, their emotionally distant mother remains a mystery, haunted by her past. The play confronts the legacy of migration, assimilation, and the painful disconnect between parent and child, in a society rife with racism and unrest. A gripping, emotionally raw, and essential production.
b) Where There is Darkness (1982) explores the emotional reckoning of Albert Williams, a West Indian man preparing to return to the Caribbean after 25 years in Britain. Following his farewell party, Albert confronts the reality of his fractured family and the life he built—and concealed—in the UK. A poignant meditation on identity, belonging, and generational disconnect.
c) The Shelter (1983) by Caryl Phillips unfolds in two contrasting acts: the first set on a desert island in the late 18th century, where a white noblewoman and a Black man are shipwrecked and must renegotiate power and connection free from society’s gaze. The second act shifts to a 1950s London bar, where a Black man and a white woman confront the collapse of their relationship amid the racial tensions of post-war Britain.
Publication: Phillips, C. (2019 2020). Where There is Darkness. In Plays One (pp. 131–205). London: Oberon Books.
