Photo Flash: Inside Rehearsal For SMALL ISLAND at the National Theatre

Andrea Levy's epic, Orange Prize-winning novel bursts into new life on the Olivier Stage. A company of 40 tell a story which journeys from Jamaica to Britain through the Second World War to 1948, the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.

Adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, Small Island follows the intricately connected stories of two couples. Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots. Hope and humanity meet stubborn reality as the play traces the tangled history of Jamaica and the UK.

Casting includes Leah Harvey as Hortense, Aisling Loftus as Queenie and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr as Gilbert performing alongside CJ Beckford, Paul Bentall, Jacqueline Boatswain, Phoebe Frances Brown, Chereen Buckley, Keira Chansa, Cavan Clarke, Shiloh Coke, Shaquahn Crowe, Beatie Edney, Adam Ewan, David Fielder, Amy Forrest, Aiko Foueillis-Mose, Nova Foueillis-Mose, Phoebe Francis Brown, John Hastings, Raphael Higgins-Humes, Stephanie Jacob, Sandra James-Young, CJ Johnson, Natey Jones, Trevor Laird, Rebecca Lee, Quincy Miller-Cole, Johann Myers, Daniel Norford and Andrew Rothney.

Directed by Rufus Norris, set and costume design by Katrina Lindsay, projection design by Jon Driscoll, lighting design by Paul Anderson, composer Benjamin Kwasi Burrell, sound design by Ian Dickinson, movement direction byCoral Messam and fight direction by Kate Waters.

Hundreds of £15 tickets available for every performance.

Broadcast as part of the NT Live Season on 27 June.

Production supported by Areté Foundation / Betsy & Ed Cohen.

Photo Credit: Brinkhoff/Moegenburg