A SMALL AND QUIET LIGHT Orange Tree, Richmond

Twelve years ago, Priyanga Burford came upon an unusual, striking story that moved her to admiration and fellowship: Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, like her half-Indian, was one of the first female agents sent from Britain into Nazi-occupied France in the darkest days of WW2. She died, heroic, finally at Dachau. There are biographie, and there has been one dramatic piece, but in research, and with this play’s writer Stephanie Street, Burford wanted to feel and understand more of “agent Madeleine” really was. It’s an honourable mission, and her performance is powerful, credible and sensitive. But enragingly, while images and facts from the story the play – co-produced with Chichester – has difficulty working. Street (and director Elin Schofield) chip the story into different time frames, moving rapidly between them, dates flashed overhead. Sometimes we are in 1943 Paris, with Caoilfhionn Dunne (very impressive throughout) as Vogt, the Gestapo interrogator struggling between his duty to get…

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