History stalks the old Council Chambers on the Walworth Road. Even the furniture, including the church-like pews, is listed in a space that has served both as council meeting room and coroner's court. It is alive with the dead, and now there is a new arrival: the fierce ghost of teenage martyr Antigone, who believes so passionately that her chosen path is the right one that she defies the law and brings tragedy tumbling down on herself and those she loves. There never was, nor will be, a time when Antigone is not a play for the here and now.
Alexa Reid's installation sets the tone: as you walk into the chamber you pass a writhing woman bound and chained. When you leave the woman has made a Houdini-like disappearance. Antigone is a play driven by the passion of youthful certainty and it is produced here by a new young company, Insite.
Director Jacquelyn Honess-Martin's production responds to the space well. There is something very right about seeing this play - pitting the rights of the individual against the concerns of the state - in a space that has witnessed so many debates, heard the stories of those whose lives were snuffed out. Saucers of light add to the atmosphere as natural light fades and day passes to night, life to death.
But Honess-Martin, the director, has not been tough enough on Honess-Martin, the writer. This version is clear and direct, but it never crackles with poetry or passion. Some of the performances are uncertain, too, although you believe in the inner hurricane of Bridget Collins's Antigone, and Francis Kelly persuades as Creon, the ruler knowing he will live for ever with the consequences of his failure.
· Until September 23. Box office: 020-7639 2119
