Strange Fruit is the story of a family caught between two cultures, and the uncrossable no-man's-land that can come between parents and their children.

It offers a portrait of growing up Black in 1980s Britain when the entire political, social and cultural system seemed rigged against the Black community.

The play was first performed at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield, in 1980, and is published here as a Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Osita Okagbue.

These look at the play's context - specifically, generational tensions between the Windrush migrants and their children, and the racism, protest and riots of the 1970s - as well as the play's themes, including identity, homelessness and interracial relationships.

The edition includes an original interview with Caryl Phillips and offers a much-needed contemporary perspective on this play, which is now over 40 years old and in the light of the recent Windrush Scandal and its ongoing ramifications.

Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts before coming to Britain with his family, growing up in Leeds and studying at Oxford University, UK. His plays include Strange Fruit (1980), Where There is Darkness (1982) and The Shelter (1983). He has also written screenplays, documentaries and dramas for radio and TV. He is well-known, too, as a novelist. His awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the PEN/Open Book Award, the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Award for Excellence and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of the Arts. He has taught at universities across the world and is currently Professor of English at Yale University, US, and an Honorary Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford University, UK.

Osita Okagbue is Professor of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmith's, University of London, UK. His research focuses on African theatre and performance, Caribbean theatre and postcolonial theatre.