Believe / The Man Jesus: Two Plays

’The effect of the entire creation is perhaps best measured by occasional involuntary gasps coming from the audience...’ The Stage

BELIEVE - Traitor, adulteress, widow and martyr: a contemporary re-imagining of the stories of four female characters from the Old Testament. Re-cast in a psychologically truthful light, their tales are shocking even by today’s sensationalist standards. From seduction, torture and decapitation to infanticide and rape, these are women surviving in violent times. Believe explores what ’God’ and faith means to the prostitute Rahab, the army wife Bathsheba, the seductress Judith and the martyr Hannah. A play for one actress.

’...in turns funny, knowing and profoundly sad.’ The Sunday Telegraph (Five Stars)

THE MAN JESUS - This extraordinary play looks at key moments in the life of Jesus through the eyes of the men and women around him. A startling and moving account of New Testament stories including the beheading of John the Baptist, the Sermon on the Mount and his final journey to Jerusalem. Hurt’s powerful portrayal of the tyrants, traitors and madmen in Jesus’ life asks people of all faiths and none: what sort of man was able to inspire the history of the world? A play for one actor.

After training as an actor, Matthew Hurt joined the Soho Theatre’s Young Writers’ group. His play Singing! Dancing! Acting! was subsequently performed at the Soho Theatre. Believe, originally written for Linda Marlowe, was produced at the Traverse, Edinburgh, and was featured on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour. It has since been performed in London, Australia, and in Sweden in translation. An adaptation of a French play, Tuesdays at Tesco’s (Le Mardi à Monoprix), was produced at 2011’s Edinburgh Festival where it won a Fringe First award. His new play for radio - Kingdom of Cloud - will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in spring 2015.