Angels in Architecture's version of the play usually known as La Ronde, played out in the shadowy labyrinth of the Roundhouse's undercroft, is disappointingly ordinary. The setting (the Roundhouse is a Victorian steam-engine repair building), conjures up the dark alleyways of Victorian London. But it is not enough to expect location to do most of the work.
Rebecca McCutcheon's production has some neat touches, including a strong sense of an entire seething city connected by a chain of sexual encounters. There is a terrific moment when the actress's performance in the bedroom is greeted with cheers from the crowd. The evening needs more of this kind of comic undercutting.
But, as is almost always the case with Arthur Schnitzler's scandalous fin-de-siecle drama (whether in modern adaptations such as David Hare's The Blue Room or traditional ones such as this dull one by Charles Osborne), spending an evening watching actors pretending to have sex is nothing like as much fun as having real sex yourself. It doesn't help that the scenes drag on long after the frost has taken a grip on the audience's toes. But it is not just for the sake of our extremities that McCutcheon would do well to move the audience around a bit more. The whole thing is too comfortable an experience; it never plunges us into the sexual misconduct that seethed behind the respectable facade of Victorian London. The brickwork tunnels that surround the undercroft's central area promise a peepshow that never properly materialises. A novel experience, but also a wasted opportunity.
· Until March 12. Box office: 020-8969 1546.
