It is astonishing to think that it is 26 years since Ibsen's The Pillars of Society last had a major London revival. Now the gap has been repaired by the Romanian director, Daniela Peleanu, with Royal Academy of Dramatic Art students. Not only does she bring out the symbolism in Ibsen's supposedly naturalistic play, she reminds us of the topicality of a work in which profit is elevated above safety and insider dealing exposed.
What makes the play spellbinding is Ibsen's ability to link private and public sins. His hero, Karsten Bernick, is a respected shipowner who has formed a consortium to secretly buy up local land through which a railway will soon pass.
But the unexpected return from America of his wife's brother, Johan, and half-sister, Lona, shows that Bernick's life is built on a series of lies. Fifteen years earlier Johan took the rap for Bernick in a sexual and financial scandal. Now, with his career and the railway project at stake, Bernick sanctions the seaworthiness of a rotting ship in which Johan is destined to return home.
I know of no 19th-century play that offers a suaver indictment of the rapacity of capitalism. Ibsen's point is not merely that Bernick approves murder in order to protect his interests, but that he convinces himself that he is doing it for the larger good of the community.
Ibsen also shows how Bernick uses his industrial power to intimidate his workers, and how sexual and commercial oppression are inextricably linked. Only Lona, newly arrived from America, brings a breath of fresh air into this "society of bachelors".
The brilliance of Peleanu's production is the way it heightens Ibsen's contrast between repression and liberation. Leandra Lawrence's bright-eyed Lona not only enters singing "A good man is hard to find", but a circus's disruptive arrival in town is suggested by gaudy music and tumblers.
There are highly accomplished performances by Phil Cheadle as Bernick and Kevin Trainor as a smug schoolmaster, as well as a fine design by Gary Thorne. This production is a joy - and shows it is a scandal that this play has largely been shunned by the British theatre.
· Until July 12. Box office: 020-7908 4800.
