Much like Fastvold’s The Brutalist, The Testament of Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried) begins well but, with a bloated runtime it ends up becoming a hard watch. Split into a number of acts, we begin in the early 18^th Century Manchester, England where, after having all of her children die only a matter of a few short weeks after they were born, Ann Lee turns to religion. She then becomes the leader and founder of the Shaking Quakers, named after their strange way of worshipping characterised by ecstatic dancing or “shaking”, the group are an offshoot of the Quaker religion.

We then follow Ann Lee and her followers as they travel to America where they set up a township near Albany in New York State.

Featuring more than a dozen traditional Shaker hymns the strange choice to have the cast burst into song at the most random moments makes The Testament of Ann Lee feel like a cross between Hair (1979) and Jesus Christ Super Star (1973).

The Testament of Ann Lee made a paltry $2.9 million when it opened in the US, it had a budget of between $10 and $11 million, and given the limited appeal of the subject it’s hard to see it doing any better when it opens here in the UK.