A tale of lust, love and secrets

The lure of 19th century Lisbon, with its exquisite blue-and-white chinawork, casual society adulteries, and the heart-wrenching music of its fados is brought once more to London courtesy of the Greenwich Playhouse.

Last year, this theatre's production of Cousin Basilio probed the flaws in a Portuguese marriage that was all precious ornament and no substance - now The Maias investigates an engagement built on true love, but with a fatal flaw that cruelly renders all emotion useless.

The novelist Eca de Queiros originally wrote both works and, through adapting them for the stage, artistic Alice De Sousa reveals a colourfully humane world-view that indicates why he has been compared to Flaubert and Tolstoy among others. Where the production of Cousin Basilio suffered from a certain rigidity, The Maias proves to be a flamboyant and urbane piece of theatre, which brings alive a society of fops and wits who pride themselves equally on being connoisseurs and cuckolders.

Take, for instance, Thomas Rushforth's scene-stealing eccentric Joao Ega, who first appears in a chinchilla-fur coat, and declares his love for philosphising and fine women as his prime aim in life.

Or Daniel Sung's enjoyably narcissistic Damaso Salcede, who has a weakness for anything he can label chic, and a dirty

hatred for any female who can resist his dubious charms.

Amongst these superficial sybarites, Jason Courtis's Carlos de Maia is a comparative innocent, whose career as an ambitious young doctor with few limits to his bedside manner is interrupted when he falls for the enigmatic Maria Eduarda. Against Chrystine Bennett's typically Portuguese blue-and-white, porcelain-style set, they are revealed as true lovebirds in a social milieu of strutting peacocks, until it is revealed that Maria Eduarda is Carlos's sister.

De Sousa's accomplished adaptation could be further strengthened if more incisive detail was brought to Carlos and Maria's thoughts and emotions when they discover that their passion is incestuous. Even so, The Maias is proof of the niche Greenwich Playhouse is carving out for itself as an enjoyably ambitious fringe venue that is evolving into an increasingly solid producer of classics.

The Maias