The Long Song

The Long Song is the story of a young slave girl who lives through the final turbulent days of slavery on a sugar plantation in 19th-century Jamaica.

It is adapted from Andrea Levy's award-winning novel by Suhayla El-Bushra, and premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in October 2021, directed by Charlotte Gwinner.

Suhayla El-Bushra writes for stage and screen. She was writer in residence at the National Theatre, London, where her adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide was staged in the Lyttelton Theatre. Other stage work includes: Pigeons (Royal Court, 2013 and tour), Cuckoo (Unicorn Theatre, 2014), The Kilburn Passion (Tricycle, 2014), Arabian Nights (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, 2017) and an adaptation of Andrea Levy's The Long Song (Chichester Festival Theatre, 2021). Screen credits include two series of Channel 4's Ackley Bridge, Becoming Elizabeth (The Forge/Starz Channel) and a short film for Film4.

Andrea Levy (1956-2019) was an English author best known for the novels Small Island (2004) and The Long Song (2010). She was born in London to Jamaican parents, and her work explores topics related to British Jamaicans and how they negotiate racial, cultural and national identities.