Those expecting more than one story may feel short-changed, but this pocket-sized version of the tale of the woman who, by drawing on the power of storytelling, managed to keep her head when all around were losing theirs, is charm itself.
Neil Duffield's play is both robustly comic and serious in its consideration of smart women who know how to get the upper hand, brotherly relationships and greed. Most of all, it explains the behaviour of a king who, betrayed by his own wife, decides all women are untrustworthy and so persuades his reluctant younger brother to marry every night and murder every morning.
Women Are the Root of all Evil is a jaunty musical number whose message is soon disproved by the cunning of Sheherazade and the quick wit of the slave girl Marjiana. Men get their just deserts and women their hearts' desire.
There may be fabulous treasures and genies in abundance, but there is no magic formula to this play: it is merely simple, straightforward storytelling, done very well. Andy Brereton's good-looking production is sometimes a little too busy for the tiny stage and occasionally encourages the actors to overplay the comedy, but he conjures caravans of camels and furious genies out of smoke and puppetry. In revealing everything, the magic is all the greater.
Duffield has interwoven the familiar and the less familiar so you get a real sense of a never-ending story, and he has a gift for combing the accessible and down to earth with the mythic in a single sentence. It is a small show, but one of transformations and pleasures constantly reminding us that when one story ends another begins.
· Until January 8. Box office: 01635 46044.
