Blonde Poison is a short shocking one-woman play. Its title was the name given to its protagonist, Stella Goldschlag, by the Gestapo, when she became a ‘catcher’ – a Jew who turned in countless other Jews to the Nazis.

The play is set some fifty years after Hitler, in a small, sparsely furnished room. Stella is now seventy, hoping she could be mistaken for forty. She peers in the mirror, still proud of her looks; her blue eyes, her toothpaste-ad teeth, and her once-blonde hair. Soon we learn that Stella is awaiting the arrival of a journalist, named Paul, who she knew as a young boy. Pacing back and forth, counting down the minutes, Stella begins to ponder the questions he might ask – and troubled memories come flooding back.

Stella tells the story of her life, from cosseted childhood (‘a little princess’!) in West Berlin with her assimilated Jewish parents, to youth at art school and then the rise of Nazism. From an early age, Stella was admired for her good looks – her aryan, un-Jewish looks. It is these that drew her to the Gestapo’s attention and suggested her use as someone who could help them track down Jews hiding in the underground. But what the play seeks to explore is why Stella took on this role – and how she has lived with her actions since.

Blonde Poison is astonishingly well-performed. Its lead superbly captures the tortured consciousness of ageing Stella. She does not invite sympathy, nor empathy – but we are shown the many layers of deception and self-deception that surround the ageing woman. The piece is well-paced, with a gradual crescendo to the greatest revelations. Above all, it offers a fresh and thought-provoking angle on a period of history we must never forget.