Drama over - avoid having to leave North Island (6)
I believe the answer is:
honshu
'island' is the definition.
(Honshu is an example)
'drama over avoid having to leave north' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'over' could be 'on' (physically on top of) and 'on' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for honshu that I've seen before include "Largest island of Japan's mainland" , "Main Japanese island" , "Island regarded as the Japanese mainland" , "Largest of the Japanese islands" , "The main island of Japan" .)