As far as Sonia Petrovna, pictured, is concerned, it’s “more than a play”.

She says: “This is a moment to just stop and think. It asks many questions about who we are. That’s why I’m saying it’s more than a play.”

The White Crow takes place in the summer of 1960 in the basement room of an Israeli police building when Nazi war criminal Adolph Karl Eichmann faces a middle-aged Israeli psychologist. When Petrovna read the script she was said to be “overwhelmed”.

The White Crow, she says, is “fiction based on something real”, about a woman who wants to find humanity in Eichmann, while he wants to prove to her that she’s lost.

Because the play is in English not French, she’s having to work harder to master the dialogue, made harder by a play that’s very dark and very subtle.

The Paris-based actress hopes for the play to be staged in France.

She already has stage work lined up, including a speaking role in The Little Prince opera.

■ Tickets 01904-623568 or online yorktheatreroyal. co.uk