Phil Willmott proves why he is one of the most versatile, best and amazingly prolific directors around with this revival of Bertolt Brecht's 1941 parable in which Hitler is parodied as a Chicago gangster.
Just as Brecht himself drew on the Hollywood love affair with the gangster and Charlie Chaplin's spoof The Great Dictator, Willmott's production captures both the smoky atmosphere of 1930s gangster movies and the madcap comic capers of the silent film era.
This is comedy with menaces. Arturo Ui takes advantage of political corruption and human weakness to take over the city vegetable trade, worm his way into power and become invincible. The warning throughout is how easy it is for a small time crook to become a big time dictator if people just stand by and let him. Not that those few individuals who do object come off well: their reward is a bullet in the brain.
All those years of producing the large scale BAC Christmas musical in a tiny space has paid off. Wilmott makes better stage pictures than almost anyone around, and here he is also blessed with a cast of uncommon talent. Peter Polycarpou is superb as Arturo Ui, playing this piece of low life as a real Shakespearean villain. There are shades of Richard III here, not least in his confrontation with Betty Dulfeet over her husband's coffin.
Yet despite all these plus points, the evening never quite has the impact that the brilliance of its individual parts might lead you to expect. There are some great scenes, in particular the one in which a drunken classical actor teaches Arturo Ui the tricks of his trade, which we subsequently see the dictator employing to great effect. But Andy de la Tour's new version is not as sharply witty as it could be, and in truth what might have been radical and daring in 1941 now seems a little over-familiar and obvious.
· Until August 24. Box office: 020 7936 3456
