Playwright Moira Buffini is best known for her black comedy Dinner. This is quite a different proposition: a historical drama set in grim and violent first-century England. But the approach, and resulting sparkle, are just the same: Buffini takes familiar dramatic tropes and makes them her own.
In Silence, this means much comic anachronism as we follow the fate of Lord Silence, a 14-year-old who rules Cumbria, and his bride, Ymma, the daughter of a French saint. Lots of the farce derives from the fact that on his wedding night, Silence discovers that he is a she. From here, the mood is in turn Blackadder, Carry On, Monty Python and Shakespearean comedy - but only fleetingly, as Buffini deftly switches into darker terrain.
The play has an unsettling atmosphere, mixing lightness and innuendo with serious points about gender, sexuality and power in this cruel historical period. Six dazzling performances from the small cast bring the characters alive in Gemma Fairlie's vigorous production. Here, history feels immediate, as does the everyday threat of menace: the play's last line ("living as we do on the edge of destruction") is almost too close for comfort.
· Until August 27. Box office: 020-7503 1646.
