KATHERINE MACALISTER meets Rebecca Peyton, whose one-woman show tells the story of her beloved sister who was shot while working in Somalia.

Kate Peyton was shot dead in Somalia while covering the civil war for the BBC six years ago. Her younger sister Rebecca is now touring with Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister and says that although it’s a warm, funny, moving, uplifting show, it’s still a hard sell.

“I’m 39 so Kate would have been 45,” recalls Rebecca.

“But we got on so well. Kate was always encouraging me and was my number one fan, as well as my best friend. I always had her absolute support.” Rebecca smiles and then laughs, “but I still think she’d be narked it was me up there on stage not her.”

Kate was killed in 2005, shot in the back by Islamists in the Somali capital Mogadishu while reporting for the BBC. But instead of hiding away after the murder, Rebecca crafted her experiences into a one-woman show to celebrate her sister. “I think Kate would enjoy the fact that I’m doing something about her,” Rebecca continues. “I hate the word ‘accept’, but I got to a stage of ‘here we are now, that’s what we’ve gone through but we have funny stories and memories to tell so what do we do with them?”

Does that mean that every night on stage is quite harrowing for Rebecca? “No, because this is a big acting piece – it’s just me up there, and it’s quite a demanding part,” she tells me.

“Fundamentally Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister is a theatrical piece of story-telling. And while fairy stories encourage children to deal with difficult or scary situations, this is a real life story about real people.

“If I had to describe it I would say it was warm, funny and helpful, because it’s normal to be bereaved and in England we look on death as a failure, even though it’s inevitable.”

Coming to Oxford’s Burton Taylor Theatre and The Theatre Chipping Norton in the next few weeks, the reviews of Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister have been brilliant and Rebecca’s play is fast becoming a cult show.

But the 39 year-old is under no illusions why. “I think half the attraction is the fascination surrounding someone whose sister was actually murdered, and seeing her talk about it.

“But then I’ve chosen to do a very public thing by revealing such a personal story. And instead of making me sad, the show gives me a sense of excitement because it’s what I want to talk about. “Because grief isn’t a process – it’s a big jumble up of bits-and-pieces. But I’m not offering anyone a solution because the dead are dead.”

Having said that, Rebecca isn’t without her critics. “The Stage review said that grief should be private and that theatre is public, and I felt sorry for the reviewer,” Rebecca explains, “because she obviously doesn’t know that people have to go to work when grieving, and burst into tears at a dinner party because someone said the word beige and it was their husband’s favourite colour. Of course it’s public!”

“But I do sit there worrying about putting people through my story.

And then she pauses. “But to be honest it’s just amazing to be able to tell everyone about Kate.”

* Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister is at the Burton Taylor Theatre on Monday and Tuesday. Call the box office on 01865 305305. It then moves to The Theatre, Chipping Norton on May 5. Call 01608 642350.