Powerful new co-production of Small Island announced for spring 2026

23 Sep 2025

Olivier Award-winning director Matthew Xia ‘speaks directly to audiences today’ with his deeply personal and richly evocative take on Andrea Levy’s award-winning story.

Journey from the sun-drenched shores of Jamaica to the cold, grey streets of 1940s London in Small Island, a powerful and intimate new portrayal of Andrea Levy’s multi award-winning novel, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson.

A Leeds Playhouse, Birmingham Rep and Nottingham Playhouse production, in association with Actors Touring Company, this exhilarating new co-production – the first to bring the story to audiences outside London – premieres in the epic Quarry Theatre at Leeds Playhouse on 11 – 28 March before transferring to Birmingham Rep on 1 – 18 April, and Nottingham Playhouse on 28 April – 16 May.

Directed by Olivier Award-winning director, composer and DJ Matthew Xia (Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Actors Touring Company), this bold staging offers a fresh perspective on a world shaped by empire and entitlement, caught between belonging and unbelonging, disappointment and hope.

“Small Island resonates deep in my bones,” he said. “As someone of Jamaican and English heritage – my father arrived from Jamaica in the 70s – I’ve personally navigated many of the tensions and connections Andrea Levy so powerfully explores.

“Audiences can expect to be immersed in an intimate, atmospheric production that evokes the textures and tones of the 1940s: the sharp cut of a demob suit, calypso crackling through a wireless, the gloom of blackout curtains.

“Small Island is about migration and memory, empire and entitlement – but also about love, across culture, colour, and class. I want this version to speak directly to audiences today, and open space for reflection in a Britain still reckoning with its past.”

Leeds Playhouse Chief Executive Shawab Iqbal said: “We can’t wait to share Small Island with audiences in Leeds, Nottingham and Birmingham – cities with deep connections to the Windrush story. We’re also delighted to reunite with Matthew Xia and Actors Touring Company after the incredible success of Tambo & Bones in spring 2025.

“Together with our partners at Nottingham Playhouse and Birmingham Rep, we’ll explore our collective history through the music, style, landscapes and characters whose stories echo across decades and continents. It promises to be an important and unforgettable journey for us all.”

Adam Penford, Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse, said: “We are so thrilled to be collaborating again with our colleagues, Leeds Playhouse and Birmingham Rep, to bring this beautiful and powerful tale to the stage. And we are especially delighted to welcome back former Associate Artist Matthew Xia, who previously directed memorable productions of Shebeen and One Night In Miami in Nottingham. We can’t wait to see this large-scale, theatrical epic fill the stage.”

Joe Murphy, Artistic Director of Birmingham Rep, said: “We are incredibly excited thrilled to bring Small Island to Birmingham Rep as part of this major co-production with our brilliant partners at Leeds Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse and Actors Touring Company. Andrea Levy’s remarkable novel is a powerful, moving, and timely story that speaks directly to the heart of modern Britain. To see it brought to life on stage in this bold adaptation from Helen Edmundson—celebrating identity, belonging, and the legacies of the Windrush generation—is a profound moment for our audiences and our city and we cannot wait to share it with The Rep audiences.”

Helen Jeffreys, Executive Director of Actors Touring Company, said: “We are thrilled to be bringing Helen Edmundson’s adaptation of Andrea Levy’s Small Island to audiences outside of London for the very first time. In exploring themes of migration, identity, and belonging, the production powerfully reflects ATC’s mission to share global stories and foster meaningful cross-cultural dialogue. Following in the footsteps of our hugely successful national tour of Tambo & Bones, Small Island will see us once again collaborating with Leeds Playhouse as we present a bold, deeply personal new production of the multi-award-winning novel directed by ATC’s Artistic Director and CEO Matthew Xia.”

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MATTHEW XIA is the multi-award-winning Artistic Director of ATC (Actors Touring Company). He was previously Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; Director-in-Residence at The Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; and Associate Director at Stratford East. He was Associate Artist at the Nottingham Playhouse alongside James Graham and Amanda Whittington.

Matthew has directed some of the UK’s most talented actors, including Daniel Kaluuya, Cynthia Erivo, Joseph Quinn, Maxine Peake, David Haig, Samuel Barnett, Matt Henry, Karl Collins, Martina Laird, Christopher Colquhoun, Malachi Kirby, David Moorst, Natasha J. Barnes, Yolanda Kettle, and Erin Doherty.

Directing includes: The Harder They Come (Stratford East); Bodies of Water (ATC/GDIF); Skeleton Crew (Donmar Warehouse); The Architect (GDIF/ATC/Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation); Tambo & Bones (ATC/Stratford East); the Olivier Award-winning Hey Duggee – The Live Theatre Show (Kenny Wax Family Entertainment/Cuffe & Taylor); the Fringe First Award-winning Feeling Afraid as if Something Terrible is Going to Happen (Francesca Moody Productions/Bush Theatre); Rice (ATC/Orange Tree); The Wiz (Ameena Hamid Productions/Hope Mill/BBC Big Night of Musicals); Family Tree (GDIF/ATC/Belgrade/Brixton House); 846Live (Stratford East/GDIF); Amsterdam (ATC/Orange Tree/Plymouth Theatre Royal); Blood Knot (Orange Tree); Eden (Hampstead Theatre); One Night In Miami… (Nottingham Playhouse/Bristol Old Vic/HOME); Into The Woods, Frankenstein (Royal Exchange); Wish List (Royal Exchange/Royal Court); Shebeen (Nottingham Playhouse/Stratford East); Sleeping Beauty, The Blacks (Stratford East); Dublin Carol (Sherman Theatre); Blue/Orange, The Sound of Yellow (Young Vic); Sizwe Banzi is Dead (Young Vic/Eclipse); I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky (Co-Director, Stratford East/Barbican); Suckerpunch Boom Suite (Barbican/NitroBEAT).

Matthew has worked with an array of renowned writers as a director and a dramaturg, including; Susan Lori Parks, Dominique Morisseau, Arinze Kene, April D’Angelis, Joe Penhall, Vikki Stone, Katherine Soper, David Levi-Addai, Yasmin Joseph, Mojisola Adebayo, and Nessah Murty. He has been a respected panelist for the Evening Standard Future Fund, Yale Drama Series, the Alfred Fagon Award, BEAM, the Bruntwood Prize and most recently the Eurovision Song Contest!

DJ / Composing / Sound Design includes: presenting an award-winning Hip-Hop show on BBC 1XTRA (DJ); The London Paralympics Opening Ceremony (DJ); The People Are Singing (Royal Exchange); Free Run (Underbelly); That’s The Way To Do It (TimeWontWait); Pass The Baton, Bolero Remixed (New London Orchestra); Da Boyz, Family Man, The Snow Queen, Hansel & Gretel, Medea, and Squid (Stratford East).

Matthew was a founding member of Act for Change. In 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Arts London for his efforts to make theatre universally accessible by working to promote minority groups as theatre leaders, makers, and consumers.