a small and quiet light
Minerva Theatre Chichester
until 12th September 2026
‘a small and quiet light’ is based on the life of Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan (1914-1944), a courageous woman who paid the ultimate price for her heroic fight against fascism.
The play opens in October 1943 in a small office on the Avenue Foch in Paris, a Gestapo interrogator is questioning a young woman who has been known by many different names: Babuli, Jeanne-Marie, Nora, Madeleine.
As one of the secret agents of Britain’s Special Operations Executive – and the first female radio operator to be sent undercover into France – she has evaded capture far longer than most. But now she has been betrayed.
As she faces the fate she has dreaded so long, memories crowd in – a beloved father, a thwarted lover, a gruelling journey to war, and an endless longing for her childhood piano. What has led her here?
In a series of flashback scenes, the life of this spy is fleshed out, and her story is told though it is done in a somewhat confusing manner. We only know where the scenes are taking place and when by looking up to the ceiling of the theatre (the play is performed in the round) where this information is flashed up. If you forget to look up (and this is easy to do) you have no idea when or where what you are watching took place.
A cast of seven women play all the parts in a gender-blind performance. This also, at times, leads to confusion as the actors don’t always look substantially different each subsequent time they appear as someone else.
If you get passed being confused for much of the time the play flies past although is runs for over two hours and never drags.
I appreciate the story is based on the life of and to honour a real person, but it doesn’t really offer anything new. Haven’t we all seen many stories of war time heroes and heroines played out on stage, on tv and on film already?
The actors play their parts perfectly well, but it isn’t until the last twenty minutes that the play really comes alive once the heroine has been captured and is being tortured before ultimately being put to death.
This play will appeal to those with a particular interest in stories of heroism during World War Two or those that like their plays to be fairly flat in their presentation but end in an emotional way. I must add that the play was met with thunderous applause at the end of it’s first night audience.
⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Mike Linane
Photo: Marc Benner
Cast
Priyanga Burford as Noor
and:
Kiah Arya,
Léa des Garets,
Caoilfhionn Dunne,
Amanda Hadingue,
Tripti Tripuraneni,
Paksie Vernon