Adapted from a Finnish folk tale, Brecht's 1940 comedy offers a variation on Jekyll and Hyde. When farmer Puntila is sober, he is a tyrant who sacks workers with communist sympathies, is determined to marry his daughter, Eva, to a chinless diplomat, and puts profit before people. When in his cups, he is the people's friend, hiring anyone who needs a job and determined to marry Eva to his chauffeur, Matti, who he treats as an equal. Unfortunately, the inebriation always passes.
The pleasure in Brecht's parable is not in the message - though it is a good one, suggesting it is genuine equality, and not the whims of individual philanthropy, that bridges the gap between rich and poor. Instead, it is in watching the pragmatic Matti negotiate his master's moods and pick up the pieces of broken promises. The relationship is a variation on Bertie and Jeeves; Matti has the cunning of one of nature's true survivors, and in one scene he provides Eva with a sharp lesson of what living in poverty would really be like.
At its best, this could be Marx (Karl) meets Marx (Groucho), but Hamish Glen's production is only fitfully funny and far too long. Peter Arnott's new version is self-consciously folksy (a muddle of Scots, German and Finnish) rather than contemporary and witty, and the relationship between David Hargreaves and Jake Nightingale's master and servant is not well enough defined. The wistful piano accompaniment is beautiful, but drains energy from already lethargic scenes. At his best, Hargreaves' Puntila hints at the madness of both King Lear and Don Quixote, but this show about a man trying to forget himself seldom reaches the comic heights.
· Until October 6. Box office: 024-7655 3055.
· This article was amended on Friday 28 September 2007 to correct a misspelling of 'Puntila'.
