NORTH ATTLEBORO-It's a presentation of biblical characters the likes of which you have probably never seen.

The one-woman performance, `` Women of the Bible: The Good Girls and The Bad Girls (Vixens Versus Virtue),'' by Linda Grey Kelley opens not with a hymn, but with the rousing music from `` All That Jazz.''

From there, it becomes a romp through the lives of not only the virtuous women of the Bible, but also the vixens.

`` Buckle your seat belt. It's going to be a bumpy ride,'' is the way Kelley forewarns her audience for what lies ahead.

She'll bring her unique style of sassy spirituality to a performance on Saturday, May 13 at the Masonic Lodge on South Washington Street. The event is being sponsored by local members of the Order of the Eastern Star from the Rose Croix Chapter in Taunton and the Angle Stone Chapter in North Attleboro. The afternoon opens at 1 p.m. for the first part of the show, then breaks at 2 p.m. for tea, and resumes at 3 p.m. for the second half.

The public is invited to attend, but reservations are preferred by calling Joan Tinkham, secretary for the Angle Tree chapter, at 695-9346, or Elaine Jackson, secretary for the Rose Croix chapter, at 508-824-4000. Admission is $10.

Kelley previously performed a different show at the Norton Public Library, where Jackson is the head librarian, and it was that performance that sparked members of Eastern Star to invite Kelley for her Bible-based show.

Eastern Star, which is affiliated with the Masons, is spiritual in nature in that its members have spiritual convictions. But the organization is not connected to any particular faith, and the only criteria for members is that they believe in a supreme being.

The members do turn to the Bible as the basis for spiritual values, which made Kelley's show a natural choice.

Kelley, who lives in Charlton in the Sturbridge area, is a Catholic and a former nun who never quite made it to her final vows.

`` I jumped ship in 1967,'' she said, which was the era of the Second Vatican Council when the church and its religious orders were changing.

Instead, she started doing theatrical performances and kept doing them for 40 years, including the one-woman versions she adopted six years ago. She now has several different shows in her repertoire, including this one on women in the Bible that combine her interests in both theater and theology and that tickle her penchant for humor.

Through quick switches of costumes and swaps of wigs, she jumps from one character to another in a manner that she said is `` sassy and fresh.''

`` My goal is to pack a punch,'' Kelley said. Her venues are varied, but are often at Protestant churches, where Bible study is popular and where performances of this type are more readily accepted.

Her characters are revealed through speeches she writes herself, and her work recently won honorable mention in a play writing contest in Hollywood that involved about 1,200 scripts.

`` It amazes me that a Bible play made it that far,'' she said.

She intentionally portrays a range of biblical women of both great and lesser repute, women such as Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Delilah, Esther, Martha, Naomi and Ruth.

Her message is that biblical characters had plenty of flaws, and that their stories are all subject to interpretation as every individual sees fit.

In making their stories known, her hope is that audiences will be willing to stretch their vision and to challenge their own views.

The result for her personally, she said, is that she feels close to God every single day because she is doing what He intended for her.

`` I went into this kicking and screaming,'' she said. `` God put it in my heart, and I just took dictation.''