Believe - Linda Marlowe

Linda Marlowe, dressed all in black apart from a red bra, twists herself into four separate female characters from the Old Testament, using only a chair and a red scarf for company on stage.

All four women rebel in different ways against a deeply patriarchal society. A demure girl turns assassin and, in a memorable scene, stamps flamenco-style across a 'battlefield of pricks' to carry out her murderous mission. An adulterous widow talks to her dead husband: "Our relationship hasn't been the same since you died"; and a mother of seven, lit by a sole spotlight, watches her sons horrifically mutilated for their faith.

The stories, a powerful mix of brutality and belief, are re-told from the women's perspective in a raw and at times amusing script by Matthew Hunt. Jeff Buckley's Halleluiah makes a fitting interlude at one moment. Though-provoking connectios are made to the modern Middle East, but the star of the show is undoubtedly Marlowe. This play gives us old stories from a new angle; it is original, shocking and intermittently funny.