A book, play and film, Atonement has the power to shock and move audiences, and Chichester Festival Theatre is staging a fantastic production of this mesmerising drama.

The story switches from the cocktail-fuelled house parties of the wealthy Tallis family in 1935 to a hero soldier desperately trying to reach Dunkirk in 1940.

Our hero is Robbie Turner, brilliantly played by Jasper Talbot, an amiable Cambridge graduate living with the housekeeper - a passionate Natasha Magigi - in the servants’ quarters, but befriended by the Tallis family.

He and the beautiful Cecilia Tallis, movingly played by Miriam Petche, are in love, but betrayal by her 13-year-old sister Briony - a spirited Isabella Dempster - seals their fate.

Briony’s schoolgirl crush on Robbie is ended by reading a sexually explicit letter he wrote but never meant to send to Cecilia. She finds them on the staircase making love and wrongly thinks he is raping her.

House guests search the grounds after two boys living with the family go missing. One guest - the spirited Lola, played by Yanexi Enriquez - emerges from the wood saying she has been raped but it was too dark to see who he was.

Robbie returns with the boys and Briony knows a shady businessman guest is guilty - but she tells the police she saw Robbie raping Lola, and he goes to prison.

In 1940 wounded Robbie, released after volunteering for the Army, makes his painful way to Dunkirk. Cecilia is a nurse, and we glimpse her and Robbie renewing their love, but also being confronted by Briony, anxious to atone.

These scenes are in Briony’s imagination. When we next meet her she is old and dying - Jessica Turner impressive in the role. With her final confession, we learn the truth.

Incisive director Adam Penfold allows humour to flow through the drama of Atonement, which runs until June 20.

Sheila Checkley