Masquerade

A softly draped, circular curtain rises on a silent, perfectly-formed other-world, where snow is gently falling and a shabby, smiling little man coaxes a large fish out of a hole in the ice, to the evident bemusement and envy of a tophatted bystander. Mikhail Lermontov's Masquerade, translated direct from the Russian original by Mary Hobson, may encompass harsh elements of jealousy and greed and murder, but so exquisite and life-enhancing is its presentation by the Small Theatre of Vilnius, that one emerges entranced and completely captivated.

The story of the nobleman Arbenin's obsession with the perceived pursuit of his gorgeous young wife Nina by Vytautas Sapranauskas's wonderfully caricatured Prince draws heavily on Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. But one finds echoes, too, of the male society at the heart of The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin; who, like Lermontov, was killed in a duel, with many masterpieces still to write. The rather ponderous surtitles do not quite match the richness of the Lithuanian poetry, delivered with twinkly wit and passion to the modified strains of Khachaturian's stirring music.

But that is easily forgiven by the delicious picturebook of visual surprises and tableaux that hesitantly emerge, form and are gone. The vast space of the Waterfront Hall's main house is an inappropriate setting for this beguilingly intimate piece of theatre but that does not explain the sparse second-night audience, who, nevertheless, seemed determined to reward the company with prolonged, fervent applause.

The Small Theatre of Vilnius will present The Cherry Orchard in the Waterfront's BT Studio on Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.