The Harder They Come at Theatre Royal Stratford East

After a sold-out run, The Harder They Come is back at its East London home. Natey Jones reprises his role as Ivan, and Madeline Charlemagne is once again Elsa (until early June, when she will pass the torch to Chanice Alexander-Burnett). Penned by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by Matthew Xia, this adaptation of Perry Henzell and Trevor Rhone’s Jamaican crime classic has earned its success. Joyous and brimming with life, it has found a new way to pose a question that will never lose its significance: “What is the personal cost of fighting against systemic injustice?”

Kingston, Jamaica, the 1970s. Ivan, a charming “country boy” and musician, has just arrived in the capital, determined to become a reggae superstar. His philosophy is encapsulated in Jimmy Cliff’s hit You Can Get It If You Really Want, each rendition of which introduces a different moment of Ivan’s journey. At the outset, Jones’s performance is full of optimism, most vividly in a scene alongside powerhouse Rachel John, who plays Ivan’s concerned mother, Daisy. Her maternal worries are met with Ivan’s stubbornness; he is not unkind, simply incapable of imagining failure. Jones’s Ivan is a live wire, and following his journey, one never stops hoping for his success.

However, Ivan’s seemingly unbreakable spirit goes up against a mountain of corruption and power imbalances, with the rich systematically leeching off the poor. He comes face-to-face with this abusive power, most notably in the form of exploitative music and business kingpin Mr Hilton, played by a slick and often menacing Thomas Vernal. Eventually, Ivan resorts to dealing drugs, which will lead to his tragic downfall, as well as his folk hero status. But this is not quite a story of broken dreams – rather of dreams that need to survive the dreamer.

The hero’s journey unravels with humour and vitality, but also moments of darkness: violence, police abuse, death. Parks, with Simon Kenny’s set design, creates an entirely convincing world, rooted in the sounds and tensions of 1970s Kingston. In this vivid world, music and language – Patois – are the motors. The soundtrack of Jimmy Cliff classics and Parks’s original songs is fully integrated into the narrative, rather than serving as mere occasions for each cast member to show off their vocal talent, formidable as it is.

Ivan’s relationship with devoted Elsa provides some of the most delightfully tender moments, often infused with sharp humour. Charlemagne fully inhabits her, and Elsa is one of the most well-rounded characters in the piece. She is kind, resolute and strong-headed, standing by her husband on his perilous journey, and, like him, unwilling to compromise her beliefs. Her solo, Hymn, is performed with all the tenderness her character deserves: touching in its honesty, and original in the way her religious upbringing is shown to inform her love for this man.

The music, alongside Xia’s direction and Shelley Maxwell’s choreography, shines particularly in moments of rapid tonal shifting: a church ensemble whipping off their robes to reveal club outfits; the funeral scene, which earns a standing ovation with its rendition of Many Rivers to Cross. These are the moments that crystallise why this production has struck a chord: it holds grief and joy in the same breath. Perhaps a few more scenes delving deeper into the darkness it touches upon would have made it even more compelling.