Gregory Doran is the architect of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Jacobean season, now boldly transferred from the inclusive Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon to a more tricky space, the Gielgud in the West End. Here five rarely performed plays are running in repertoire.
John Fletcher's tale of conflict between neighbouring Indonesian islands and the differing factions among the incoming Portuguese has not been performed for almost 400 years. Despite the best efforts of Doran and his cast, I see no reason that it should not be neglected for at least another 400.
With silky hangings tumbling from the roof and gold-threaded costumes, Niki Turner's design ensures that the play looks good. It sounds great, too, with an on-stage gamelan orchestra. Nor could you complain about the acting. The problem is that it is hard to fathom the modern meaning or appeal of the story. The play has the beautiful and proud Princess Quisara vowing to marry the man who successfully frees her brother from imprisonment by the wily governor of the neighbouring island, Ternata. The princess expects the man she loves, the Portuguese self-styled action man Ruy Dias, to win her hand, but he proves to be all bluff and bluster. Into the breach steps, or rather swashbuckles, the square-jawed, Portuguese adventurer Armusia. The princess is initially aghast, but dismay turns to respect that is thwarted by the arrival of a priest - in fact the disguised governor of Ternata - who stirs up trouble.
On a basic adventure-story level - lots of men in leather trousers, and lots of attractive women exotically arrayed - it is pleasant enough. But as it builds to a climax, religion is the added explosive ingredient: Armusia refuses to consent to Quisara's heathen religion, and it is she who must kneel to his Christian God if the path of true love is going to run smooth. Is this supposed to be an indictment of colonialism or a celebration of it? Doran's production never makes it clear. There are other oddities, too: why does the evil governor so resemble Osama bin Laden? If this is supposed to be a joke, it is a dangerous one.
· In rep until January 25. Box office: 0870 890 1105.
