Colm Tóibín’s novella The Testament of Mary takes powerful life in Fiona Shaw’s portrayal at London’s Barbican Theatreraham Greene, notoriously prone to doubt, was convinced that the gospels were an account of real events because of a single line in St John’s description of the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb: “The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.” This reference to a fitter witness overtaking a puffing other was too humanly realistic, thought Greene, for a hoaxer or propagandist to have fabricated, indicating that it came from some sort of eyewitness testimony. Personally, I have always felt that the life of Christ cannot have been fiction because no sensible fabulist would