★★★☆☆
On the positive side, even though she never sets foot in the streets, Hannah Khalil provides a more nuanced glimpse of life in Iraq than is to be found in David Hare’s Stuff Happens. Her play, which straddles two very different eras, also gets some compelling performances from a cast led by Emma Fielding and Rendah Heywood.
The problem is that the Palestinian-Irish writer’s reach exceeds her grasp. By yoking together the stories of a museum director in 2006 and scenes from the life of Gertrude Bell, the archaeologist and administrator who helped to draw the map of the Middle East after the First World War, she doesn’t focus enough attention on either woman.
The result is a tantalising failure. The director Erica