A Japanese translation

These Yukio Mishima plays, interpreting traditional Japanese Noh dramas, stick in the craw: maybe this is why it's taken them 30 years to reach a British stage.

The Nobel prize-winner's exposure of the human condition is prickly, yet Stone Crabs director Franko Figueiredo tosses aside comfort for a double bill which - while not perfect - has moments of finesse.

In Sotoba Komachi, a Medusa-like bag lady seduces a poet with tales of her faded beauty. Against a simple park set, the hag is a multi-faced gorgon played by four actors. Tereza Araujo is its decrepit side, slightly bonkers but visceral as she mocks true love.

It's in The Damask Drum, though, where Mishima's unforgiving wickedness really pulsates. Ecco Shirasaka's pitiful old man Iwakichi sends beautiful Hanako (a suitably condescending and pompous Carli Goodwin) a daily love letter.

Discovered by Hanako's colleagues, the man is taunted and told to beat out his love on a damask drum which, unbeknown to him, makes no sound. The jeering of the office crowd and utter arrogance of youth elates and horrifies.

That Iwakichi's act of Hara-kiri echoes Mishima's own ritualised suicide is a chilling reminder that his writings are deliberately hard to swallow.

Tonight until Sep 5, Greenwich Playhouse, Greenwich British Rail Forecourt SE10, Tue to Sat 7.45pm, Sun 4pm, £10, £8 concs. Tel: 020 8858 9256. Rail: Greenwich