SMALL ISLAND

Olivier Theatre until April 30 nationaltheatre.org.uk

This deeply moving, tartly amusing adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel examines the post-Second World War Windrush generation through two intersecting lives.

It opens with bright but spiky Hortense (a pitch-perfect Leonie Elliott, pictured) in pre-war Jamaica and Yorkshire lass Queenie (a tremendously engaging Mirren Mack) trapped in London with repressed and unstable

husband Bernard (an excellent Martin Hutson).

Act Two weaves the storylines together as Caribbean immigrants find military heroism repaid with ugly racism and dashed hopes while

Queenie faces an agonising decision.

Deft staging, powerful movement and song, and very fine acting all delight.

Although it’s more than three hours long, some characterisations and themes of racism, sexism and class are painted in broad strokes and the powerful ending feels rushed.