Lenny Henry (Matt Crossick/PA) (PA Wire)© Provided by The Independent/Photo Courtesy
Lenny Henry has recalled the racist abuse his family was subjected to while he was growing up in the UK.
The Rings of Power star is making his playwriting debut with August in England, a one-man show that will open at the end of April at the Bush Theatre in west London.
Inspired by the BBC’s 2019 Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle, Henry’s production tells the story of British-Jamaican August Henderson, played by Henry, who faces deportation when he is caught up in the Windrush scandal that saw hundreds of Commonwealth citizens deported and denied their legal rights.
“This could have happened to any of my older brothers or sisters,” Henry said in a new interview with The Times. “My sister Kay came over on my dad’s Jamaican passport.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Henry, 64, recalled the racial abuse that his family has endured.
“My brothers used to get attacked and had to defend themselves on the way to and from work,” he told the publication.
“My mum was chased down the street by people asking where her tail was.”
He also spoke about feeling lonely in his pursuit of acting, saying that he both admires and is envious of young Black performers now who have one another for support.
“There wasn’t anybody around who I could learn from, really,” he said. “There were people who were on television at the time but I couldn’t knock on their door and go, ‘Can you teach me about oppression?’”
Henry continued: “I’d be doing clubs up north and overhearing people saying, ‘When’s the nignog coming on?’ ‘If he’s not funny, we’re going to hang him in the car park.’ I had that s***.
“I’d win them over. I would feel the sting of the racist barb but generally, the great thing about this country, I think, is that I was met halfway. I figure if you’re prepared to put in work, people meet you halfway.”
Speaking about the Windrush scandal, Henry said: “You can live in this country for 52 years, pay your taxes, have kids at school, get a partner… and they can tell you to go back to a country you’ve not been in since the age of four.”
He added: “This is an extraordinary British tragedy.”
The actor also spoke out against the fact that the response to the scandal has been fronted by Conservative politicians, including Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, both from immigrant families, themselves.
“That’s odd, isn’t it?” questioned Henry. “It’s like, ‘Put a brown face on it.’”
Asked whether he believed it to be a deliberate strategy, he responded: “It feels like it. It’s very hurtful. When you see brown people up there saying that stuff, it sends a chill into your heart.
“They’re being used, you know. It’s pretty cynical, I think.”
August in England is on at the Bush Theatre from 28 April to 10 June. By Annabel Nugent, The Independent
