There is a special atmosphere at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond provided by the intimacy of the in-the-round setting and proximity of the audience to the performances, and even the extensive building works that have temporarily robbed the venue of its foyer spaces cannot reduce the excitement of entering the auditorium. The latest production to grace this space is a transfer from the Minerva in Chichester of Stephanie Street’s play a small and quiet light. It is the story of Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, also known as Nora Baker, Madelaine, and Jeanne-Marie, who was dropped into Nazi-occupied France in 1943 by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to provide intelligence and reconnaissance information by radio back to the UK.
She was the first female wireless operator to be deployed on such a mission from 16th June 1943 until 13th October 1943 when the expected average survival period was just six weeks. Born in Moscow to an Indian Muslim father and American mother in 1914 and brought up in London and Paris, her language skills and background appear to have allowed her to hide in plain sight of the Nazis until someone betrayed her. Indeed, as the play tells, in a distinctive blue suit, with her wireless set in her briefcase by her side and her notebook in her pocket, she did little to hide her presence. Her story is unfolded in two parallel linear narratives: her life from 1926 to her death in Dachau in 1944, and her interrogation by the Gestapo interrogator Ernst Vogt from Day 1 to Day 333.
Since we first saw the play in Chichester, the assurance and intensity of the performances has grown, and familiarity with the characters on a second viewing assists the multiple character and gender changes from the cast of seven women. The male characters such as Vogt, her brother Bhai, the French resistance man Pierre and the Gestapo soldier Cartaud are more quickly established and recognised, and this assists the narrative flow.
At the centre of the play, of course, is Priyanga Burford as Noor-un-Nisa, a calm, quietly spoken heroine, fearless in the face of the risk of capture, torture and being shot, loyal and resolute towards her family and her adopted country, and naive and foolhardy in the pursuit of her mission. We see her worrying about her family, flirting with Pierre, chatting with a smile with her interrogator and calmly meeting her fate. As she says, “I’ve served my county that is my recompense”. She holds our attention especially in the final monologue when she directly addresses the audience about her death and the way the story is told.
Amanda Hadingue impresses as Vera Atkins, the Deputy Director of the F section of SOE who selected Noor-un-Nisa for the mission against the advice of the trainers and probably underprepared, but it is unclear whether it was her failure to pull her out or Noor-un-Nisa’s wilful recklessness to remain that was her undoing. Caoilfhionn Dunne is the interrogator Vogt, and her performance has added intensity and authority since we first saw the show to the non-violent threat in her interrogation, offering tea and a bath in return for information. The relationship between them is intriguing, against the normal portrayal of such men, and you wonder whether this is artistic licence or based on archival records.
The production sits neatly in the Orange Tree space; it is more cramped than the Minerva but that adds to the intensity and drama. Director Elin Schofield and designer Anna Yates’ set required limited re-blocking around the four piano stools used to deliver props while four projection screens show the location and date of the scenes. The opening and closing scenes reflect the main characters in her life piecing together the evidence of what happened to her in France and reflecting on their role in her fate.
It leaves you wanting to know more about her and the women who followed her into occupied France and to understand more about how she operated and survived for those four months at large in France and in the year that followed in prison. She was a remarkable woman, but we wanted to understand her motivation more and why she was so determined to go against the wishes of her mother and brother and put herself at such risk of an inevitable outcome. This is a heroic story about a woman who was awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre, a life to be honoured and celebrated, and the play beautifully shines a small and quiet light on her endeavours.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
