West Bridgford Dramatic Society has come up with a fine production of a gripping and well-made play. It's directed by Sarah Banks.

The play is set in China in 1950, where the Communists have taken power; the action takes place in a Catholic Mission Station run by nuns. The revolutionary army has arrived.

It's thematically powerful. Obedience to conscience and to promises, ethnic prejudice, compassion, class, moral dilemma - the play is concerned with all of these and more. But the characters are not mere ciphers being pushed around to fit the plot: they're credible, three-dimensional and well-drawn individuals each with his/her own set of priorities.

There are particularly strong performances from Beryl Hoyle, as Sister Magdalen, who has given her life to China, Micheline Harris, as the Mother Superior, and Malcolm Todd, as an embittered Scottish mercenary, an officer in the Maoist army. Penny Lewin is also impressive as Ruth Stilton, the badly damaged wife of the British consul.

Attention to detail is pleasing. Costumes are nicely done; so are the period background recordings, especially the stirring choral Communist stuff. And it all happens on a realistic early fifties common room set.

It's interesting how, given the high Catholic content of the play, the Church isn't subjected to the thrashing it routinely receives on stage.

ALAN GEARY