Unironic optimism is a rare quality in modern drama. But Courttia Newland's Mother's Day, enthusiastically put across by the multicultural Post Office company, posits a Britain in which the nuclear family thrives, racial harmony is easily achieved and local councils act with enlightened beneficence. By the end, I was almost prepared to believe in Santa Claus.
In fact, Newland's amiable family drama is at its best when dealing with its one truly repulsive character: a white bigot called Roy who goes berserk when his sister, Linda, moves in with the genial, black Benny, recently deserted by the feisty Juanita. The fraternal rage not only punctures the myth that Britain is a land of sunny tolerance but also gives Newland the chance to expose the hypocrisy that often accompanies racial prejudice. The ludicrously reactionary Roy, himself living with a mixed-race lover whom he assumes to be South American, is definitively put down by a black girl as a man who "likes chocolate even if he doesn't recognise the taste".
This tartness is a welcome antidote to the play's prevailing niceness. I would like to believe in a world in which rival lovers of the same guy are happily reconciled, stepbrothers instantly bond and the local council is represented by a smiling bureaucrat, but I find it difficult. Newland, an admired novelist, has a slightly Pollyanna-ish theatrical vision and throws in too many monologues, but he is well served by Riggs O'Hara's production and by a strong cast headed by Sasha Oakley as the loving Linda, Carol Moses as the sharp-tongued Juanita, Dominick Golding as the ridiculous Roy and ex-rugby star Martin Offiah as the benignly muscular Benny. What moved me most, however, was the audience: young, attentive, multiracial. In this area at least the Post Office is clearly delivering.
· Until September 28. Box office: 020-8741 2311.
