Review: Sisters ***

A VERBATIM play, based on interviews with Muslim women, Stephanie Street's Sisters aims to reveal the variety of stories behind

the headscarf.

However, in its efforts to portray characters as complex, intelligent and diverse, the play veers towards unnecessary extremes.

The first play written by Street, a former EastEnders actress who also appears in this production, Sisters begins in the Sheffield living room of the Khan family which is headed by

59-year-old Eileen, an Englishwoman who converted to Islam when she married a Pakistani.

Audience members are invited into the Khans' Darnall home and offered samosas, pakoras, cups of tea and jam tarts while Eileen and four other actresses attempt to answer the question "So, you want to know about being Muslim women?" Although all the cast shine and switch seamlessly from one role to another, it is former Hollyoaks actress Lena Kaur (Meena) and Coronation Street/Bad Girls/Queer As Folk star Denise Black (Eileen) who stand out.

Between them, the five women take on 17 different roles, among them the more everyday (a hijab-wearing mother-of-10, a glamorous Asian businesswoman, a medical student) and the bizarre – a pre-op intersex Asian woman from Luton, who describes being forced to marry a woman.

It is here that Sisters begins to lose its footing. As relevant as Husna's story may be, it doesn't seem strictly necessary when we've already heard from socialist lesbian Farida, or Jameela, captain of the British Muslim Women's football team. As one act, Sisters could have been both insightful and entertaining but, over two hours, the number of stories begins to feel like a bombardment.

To March 20.