Critics hail David Suchet's 'spellbinding' Thomas Becket in the Orange Tree's church staging of 'Murder in the Cathedral'

T.S. Eliot's 1935 verse drama about the 1170 killing of the Archbishop of Canterbury has been revived by directors Tom Littler and Francesca Ellis. The Orange Tree has moved the production out of its usual theatre and into the neighbouring Victorian church. Among its elements are a Christmas sermon, a biblical temptation scene, and a Greek chorus of women who sing.

Becket is slaughtered by four knights after the 'plausibly deniable incitement' of Henry II.

The knights close the play with lengthy speeches in which they justify the killing.

One reviewer called Eliot's plays 'dense, verbose' but said those flaws become virtues here.