Tropical plants would thrive in the stiflingly muggy atmosphere of the Young Vic's main house. That the cast of The New Tenant manage to spend half an hour lugging wardrobes and dining tables around the space without expiring is a small miracle. As enough retro furniture to redecorate Buckingham Palace is crammed on to the stage, you begin to understand why Ionesco's one-acter is so rarely staged, even in air-conditioned theatres.
The chance to see such little-known work is one of the great pleasures of the Young Vic's Direct Action season. Another is the invigorating way in which the young directors themselves embrace the opportunity to work on a bigger stage. Alex Murdoch's fringe work has been endearing but slight; here she draws out all the comedy and melancholy of Ionesco's odd play with a previously unsuspected seriousness and grace.
The plot of The New Tenant is limited: a man moves into a new flat, is accosted by the building's raucous caretaker, then instructs the removal men in the unorthodox placement of his unruly furniture. That doesn't mean the play is comprehensible, however. What it communicates is a feeling rather than an outright message: a sense of the self-absorption of the lonely, and the difficulty of dealing with a noisy, intrusive world, that in the play's final image proves ineffably moving.
If only The Exception and the Rule (3 stars) were so mysterious. This is Brecht at his most didactic, exposing a "humanity without humaneness", attacking the exploitative greed of businessmen in search of oil and demanding: "Where there's abuse, do something." Jan-Willem van den Bosch's vibrant, cartoonish production brings colour to Brecht's black-and-white vision of capitalism, and a cabaret kitsch to the evil businessman's self-aggrandising songs; his production is enjoyable, but doesn't make the play feel any less heavy-handed.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 020-7928 6363.
