Fresh from a celebrated run at Brixton House, reggae pioneer Sutara Gayle (aka Lorna Gee) rounds off the Royal Court’s 2025 season with a thundering one-woman mixtape memoir. The Legends of Them threads together a patchwork of memories from the life of Lorna Gee – from Holloway women’s prison to a series of school expulsions, from a healing holy retreat in the sacred mountains of India to the Brixton riots.

Sutara Gayle commands the main stage of the Royal Court Theatre, barely pausing for breath as she guides the audience not only through her own legend as a lesbian Jamaican immigrant coming of age in 1970s Brixton, but through the legends of others that influenced and shaped her – like historical freedom fighter Nanny of the Maroons, and Gayle’s own brother and spiritual guide Mooji.

Co-created with director Jo McInnes and dramaturg Nina Lyndon, The Legends of Them is a soaring celebration of heritage and hope against adversity. There are threads of gold in this work, particularly in the music that shows off Gayle’s true passion and talent. Lorna Gee has a sharp wit and a way with words that pierces through her lyrics and poetry.

The show finds its flow and characters after a somewhat meandering introduction, and occasionally struggles to gather all its narratives together, but then whose life is easy to disentangle and regimentally order like that? No one’s that would be worth making a play about.

Lighting designer Joshie Harriette, together with projection designers Tyler Forward and Daniel Batters, create a kaleidoscopic and textured overlay to the stark wall of speakers that make up the set. The effect is mesmeric, drawing the audience into a swirling sea of memory.

Equal parts brash and vulnerable, tough and tender – The Legends of Them is a pure piece of storytelling, rich in history and personality.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett

The Legends of Them plays at London’s Royal Court until 21 December, with further info here.