NO wonder Jordan, the award winning play by Anna Reynolds and Moira Buffini about a mother who murders her child, is so disturbing. One of the co-writers, Anna Reynolds, had committed murder herself. When she was only 17 she killed her sleeping mother with a hammer but after two years of a life sentence, was reprieved after a diagnosis of premenstrual stress syndrome caused by a hormone imbalance.

Jordan is also a true story which makes it doubly heart-rending. One wonders whether Anna actually met Shirley, who killed her own child, in prison.

The story of the immature woman who suffocates her beloved thirteen-month old son out of love, is told in a one woman show starring Sian Walker of the Stickleback Theatre Company.

She tells what happens so convincingly that you see her side of the story and even sympathise with her.

It’s the all too common situation of an innocent who gets caught up with an older, ruthless man.

Her partner soon loses interest in her and the baby and sleeps around with other women in their shared flat.

When he leaves she has time to bond with her son of the title name until he returns and both mother and child suffer hell.

Sian cleverly highlights the few highs and many lows in the life of this girl. Her intonation, facial expression and use of pause are excellent. Never exaggerating or over acting, Sian quietly recounts the feelings and fears of a woman who loves her child but is terrified of his father. She quivers in nervous moments and cries real tears as she recalls the mental torture and physical battering she suffers from this monster of a man.

In contrast she is excited in the early years when she rides on her partner’s motorbike and shares his flat.

For over an hour she unswervingly talks to you as though you were a cellmate, dragging you kicking and screaming into her world.

This play will really get to you and you’ll be forgiven for shedding a few tears.

Well directed by Gordon Hamlin, you realise how unfair life can be to the most vulnerable.

Shirley is unexpectedly released but there is no happy ending and you come away with a large lump in your throat.

At the Lauriston Studio, Altrincham Garrick, September 15. Tickets are available from 0161 928 1677. Star Rating * * * * *