A landmark play will be performed at Manchester's Contact Theatre in Hebrew, English and Arabic.

Ruti Worrall's play, The Stalker, was specially written for Manchester University's Palaver Festival of Languages, and will be performed by students from the university reading Arabic and Hebrew.

Set in Israel, the play opens with Maya, an Israeli woman living in the UK, sitting outside her old childhood home, and watching it for days on end. The house's new owners are an Israeli Arab couple who are distressed at the behaviour of their "stalker".

When it transpires that the so-called stalker intends to buy the house, the whole street gets involved in the emotive issue of Jews living in Arab houses and vice versa.

The two women at the centre of the play - the Israeli Jew, Maya, and the Israeli Arab, Nur - eventually find a common language to bridge the political and religious divide.

Sophie Garside, the university's lecturer in Hebrew Studies, said: "It is thrilling to see both students of Arabic and students of Hebrew working together for the first time in the department."

The play will be performed on March 21 at the Contact Theatre and on March 27 at Menorah Synagogue in South Manchester.