Review: Windrush Secret, EdFringe

In 2018, when Theresa May was Prime Minister, the Home Office destroyed thousands of landing card slips recording Windrush immigrants’ arrival dates in the UK. The result was catastrophic. These cards were a vital resource for caseworkers trying to confirm when individuals from the Caribbean had entered the UK. Their destruction led to thousands of people being wrongly detained, denied legal rights, and at least 83 individuals being unlawfully deported. Many of those affected were born as British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973. Let us not forget that the Windrush generation were people who supported the UK in its hour of need: many took up jobs in the NHS and filled vital roles during Britain’s post-war labour shortage.

While I hope none of this is news to the reader, it serves as critical context for understanding this extraordinary production, which opens with a Black Caribbean diplomat (Rodreguez King-Dorset) addressing a protest march in 2018, fighting for the rights of the Windrush generation. In one of the most impressive solo performances I’ve seen in a long time, King-Dorset switches between characters and accents in a seamless, astonishing tour de force.

The production is staged in an intimate black box theatre, with spotlights focused on the speaker. As diplomat Marcus Ramsay, King-Dorset stands at a small podium and addresses a crowd of 100,000 in Parliament Square. He is impassioned, emotional, and frequently pauses to wipe his brow. A former preacher, he channels righteous fury, delivering a speech full of facts, figures, and frustration. He is both advocate and educator. His disdain for Theresa May and the actions of her department is palpable. His clenched fists and taut body language betray a simmering desperation.

Then, with just a few steps to the side, King-Dorset transforms into Trevor Smith, a young white far-right party leader addressing a 300-strong crowd in a Woolwich social club. Though physically no more than two metres from the podium, he is now a completely different presence: his posture, voice, and tone are utterly transformed. The speech is laced with insidious racism and shocking rhetoric. In stark contrast to Ramsay, this man loves Theresa May: she reminds him of his mother. Most disturbingly, he describes the Middle Passage and colonial acts with grotesque pride, openly justifying slavery. It’s a bold and horrifying narrative device: I cannot recall ever hearing such a public justification of enslaving others delivered with such unflinching conviction.

The performance continues with relentless intensity. King-Dorset also becomes a privately educated English barrister working for the Home Office. He’s calm, rational, and entirely complicit. He insists he was “only doing his job,” following the letter of the law. It’s a chilling portrayal of how bureaucracy shields individuals from moral responsibility.

There is a slight twist at the end: a clever link between two of the characters that highlights the contradictions and complexities of British racism. While the story could stand on its own without it, this moment serves as a powerful reminder of how fragile our beliefs can be when challenged.

This is one of the most powerful pieces of theatre I’ve witnessed in recent years: both deeply educational and profoundly emotional. The audience was visibly shaken. While the subject matter is neither new nor unknown, the personal testimonies, from both victims and perpetrators of institutionalised racism, lend the production a raw, urgent intensity that defies easy summary.

Written and produced by: Rodreguez King-Dorset

Windrush Secret plays at Edinburgh Fringe Festival until Sunday 24 August.