London - Arcola Theatre - 8 Jan to 2 Feb 08 - 20:15 (1:20)

Arts Theatre - 4-23 February 08 - 19:30

Tonight's venue is a tiny and terrifying space in which to be unzipping a top and wiggling your belly, mostly because you are wiggling it straight into the faces of the front row. However, Uzbek dancer and actress Nadira Murray has done worse.

Working as a heroin runner and stripper in her own country to support her family, raped twice by policemen and once by her boss, she was then hounded through the British press after shacking up with British Ambassador Craig Murray - one of the few officials to speak openly about Britain's use of information gathered by torture.

Now, in her one-woman show, Nadira Murray tells her side of the story. It is hardly a fairy-tale-come-true, which is why you want to like her performance so much. She is a survivor. University educated and school chess champion, she was put through drama school by now-husband Craig Murray after he left his wife and family, suffered a breakdown and was sacked - ostensibly over sex-for-visa allegations, but more probably for his outspokenness. They then moved together to Shepherds Bush, London. And you want all of this to have paid off.

Sadly Nadira Murray, who speaks five languages and whose hips could stun from twenty paces, is no great actor. Her 80-minute monologue feels contrived. Powerfully but theatrically co-written with Alan Hescott and directed by his son Thomas Hescott, it is akin to watching the Jerry Springer show - with carefully orchestrated pauses, gestures, and tonalities, interspersed with voiceovers, and rounded off with an entirely gratuitous belly dance.

Nadira Murray comes alive only when she adopts a character; impersonating her father and husband, for example, as they discuss her price over vodka - or as the Madame auditioning her for her first dancing job. Here, she displays a brilliant sense of comedy and of the ridiculous in life. But for the most part she tries too hard to act, whereas in fact this story simply needs telling.

It is a fascinating and harrowing tale, one which will grip an audience no matter what. It is also one with a bitter-sweet ending: Craig Murray lost his job and the torture in Uzbekistan continues - overshadowed by the seedy daytime-TV-fall-from-grace of its British Ambassador.

On the other hand, the couple themselves are clearly happy and in love. Craig Murray comes to the theatre every night and waits for Nadira Murray backstage. She has been introduced to the strange British fetish for spanking, and likes to cook him Plov, a traditional dish made - as she describes it - of sheep's arse fat. Craig Murray has published a book and David Hare has written a film script about them. There is talk of a movie starring Angelina Jolie and Steve Coogan - as unlikely a pairing as the Murrays themselves.

While Craig Murray is often praised for speaking the truth in the face of opposition, this show with its frank depiction of rape, abuse and prostitution must also mark Nadira Murray as one who will not stay quiet about matters which we - in our comfortable homes - would prefer remained under the carpet.

Cast Credits: Performed by Nadira Murray

Company Credits: Writers - Craig Murray, Nadira Murray, Alan Hescott. Director - Thomas Hescott. Company - Fledgling.

(c) Philippa Tatham 2008

reviewed 15 January 2008 / Arcola Theatre - Studio 2

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008