The West Indian is a play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 by Richard Cumberland

Richard Cumberland (dramatist)

Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...

 first staged at the Drury Lane Theatre

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

 in 1771. A comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 it depicts Belcour, a West Indian plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

-owner travelling, to Britain. Belcour tries to overcome his father's lingering disapproval of him and marry his sweetheart Louisa. The play was a success running for 28 performances in its original run and was Cumberland's most popular comic work. One of the Drury Lane staff observed "the success which has attended the performances of The West Indian has exceeded that of any comedy within the memory of the oldest man living". The play proved popular in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and was staged in the West Indies and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. A popular character was the Irishman Major O'Flaherty who re-appeared in the 1785 play The Natural Son

The Natural Son

The Natural Son is a comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in December 1784. The play is notable for the return of the popular character Major O'Flaherty from Cumberland's 1771 play The West Indian.-Bibliography:* Baines, Paul...

.

The play was one of a number written by Cumberland that contained sympathetic depictions of colonists from the British Empire.