They are back. Alongside their sensational production of The Mysteries, the South African Academy of Performing Arts are currently presenting John Gay's subversive ballad-opera. But, although it is beautifully sung and wittily staged in this magical Victorian music hall, it doesn't make quite the same emotional impact as its Biblical predecessor.
One reason lies in the contrast between the two works. The Mysteries tells a timeless story: Gay in 1728 was writing a social and political satire equating London low-life with George II's court and Walpole's cabinet.
Although Mark Dornford-May's production is played in 18th century costume, it takes a scythe to the text and cuts many of the more pointed lines. We don't hear Macheath's cynical argument that "money well timed, and properly applied, will do anything" or the fence Peachum's ever-topical assertion that "like great statesmen, we encourage those who betray their friends".
In short, this is a production lacking in political bite: it's hard to know whether its target is corruption in Georgian England or contemporary South Africa. Where it does succeed is in catching the work's switch in tone from carnivalesque exuberance to mock-tragedy. Siyabulela Bede's wonderfully robust Macheath, declaring "I must have women", finds himself surrounded by a cascade of rainbow- costumed doxies.
But, once he is captured, the preparations for his hanging are unusually meticulous and he is actually left dangling from the end of a rope before his famously ironic reprieve. And in the final, rousing choral cry of "The wretch of today may be happy tomorrow" I felt the work had at last acquired an urgent, specifically South African resonance.
For much of the evening, however, the main pleasure lies in hearing the adaptation, under Charles Hazelwood's musical direction, of English folk tunes to South African marimbas and drums. The stylistic marriage is also symbolised by the show's alternative title, ibali looTsotsi.
As in The Mysteries, the singing is also magnificent. The choral rendering of songs such as Youth's The Season Made For Joys raises the roof. And there are striking individual performances from Dipuo Mogoregi as an extravagantly fur-coated Peachum and Pauline Malefane as a dangerously laughing Lockit.
I came out having had a thoroughly good time but also wondering what might have happened if Gay's period pop-opera had been relocated to modern Jo'burg or Capetown.
· In rep until December 13. Box office: 0870 842 2200.
