Every 10 years Nicolas Kent revives Mustapha Matura's famous Trinidadian transposition of Synge's 1907 Irish tragi-comedy. On its third outing, the show remains as lively, ebullient and funny as ever: if anything, it is a shade too genial, missing some of the sombre undertones of Synge's original masterpiece.
What is astonishing is how closely Matura follows Synge's plot. We may be in a Trinidad rum shop rather than a Mayo shebeen, but the hero, Ken, is a fugitive who finds that his presumed parricide endows him with unexpected sexual charisma.
Local girls ply him with fresh-water oysters and molasses and an antique voodoo woman sinks her claws into him. But the heart of the play lies in the joint transformation of Ken from nervous wimp into conquering hero and of Peggy, who runs her father 's rum shop, from sharp-tongued sourpuss into adoring lover.
As comedy, Matura's version is hard to fault: he keeps all Synge's surprise entrances and adds to them his own 1950 period texture and joyous Creole dialogue, with its references to "washicongs" (plimsolls), "totie" (penis), and "Basil de Boobalee" (a dummy). The main difference between Matura and Synge is that in the latter you feel women are perennial victims and that Pegeen, after her moment of self-discovery, is doomed to derelict solitude; but that itself may be a comment on the cultural gap between mournful County Mayo and life-loving Trinidad.
Even if the tragedy is short-changed, the performances in Kent's revival are a delight. Sharon Duncan-Brewster, salaciously licking the sweat off her hero's bare torso, captures the blossoming sensuality of the oppressed Peggy. And Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's Ken has such beguiling innocence that even when he tells Peggy he feels closer to her than anybody - "man, woman or dog " - he makes it sound like a compliment.
Two supporting performances also have abundant, extra-textual life. Joy Richardson turns Mama Benin, the old obeah woman, into a figure of quivering concupiscence. And Ben Bennett makes Peggy's intended fiancé a wonderfully nerdish figure.
Adrianne Lobel's set also adds much to the event by artfully evoking a Trinidad where poverty and paradise exist in ironic proximity.
· Until January 22. Box office: 020-7328 1000
