Agnes of God is a grimy, dark drama set in a psychiatrist’s office; an apt place, given the questions that simmer furiously under the mysterious plot.

As the title suggests, Agnes (Tanya Tillet) is a nun. She is brought to the offices of Dr Martha Livingstone (Caroline Brown) by her Mother Superior (Kaffy Rice-Oxley), after a foul crime is committed.

For it is not long since Agnes has been discovered, unconscious, in her room, her newborn baby strangled and thrown into the wastepaper basket. The stage is set: a murder has been committed, Agnes appears guilty beyond doubt and only a plea of temporary insanity can now save her from imprisonment.

But questions remain. Who was the baby’s father? Why, for that matter, can Agnes remember nothing of either the conception or the birth? What is she hiding? And why is the Mother Superior so desperate for Agnes to cease her sessions with the therapist and return immediately to her life in the convent?

The answers are far from trivial, and would keep even the most avid Agatha Christie reader guessing right up until the final scene.

But this is not just a murder mystery: it runs far deeper than that. We are presented with two, conflicting, sets of beliefs to choose between. Who is right, the voice of Science, or Religion? Will Agnes be saved by truth, or innocence? Logic, or faith? Cloistered ignorance, or harsh reality?

The answers become less and less clear as the plot unfolds. No character is quite what they at first seem; each has something to hide; each has an unstated motivation that drives their actions and their thoughts, for better or for worse. And the revelation of each new, dark secret makes our attempt to judge the characters and their actions harder.

As for the acting, well, in a nutshell, it was flawless. Certainly the best student drama I’ve seen in Oxford so far. The only, slight, downside was the lack of staging and props, but frankly, with acting as good as this, you don’t really need them.

So, go and see it-it’ll be one of the best plays you see this year. But, don’t expect flippant, superficial entertainment; this is a play with serious, thought-provoking content that will leave you with plenty of fascinating questions to mull over for some time to come.

Isabel Owen, 05.11.03