Missing a few cogs

Frank Wedekind's 1906 play is a puzzling contraption. It moves along all right but it's as if some of the cogs are missing.

Klara, a would-be singer, is living with her music teacher, Josef, and his wife. An affair with her tutor results in a backstreet abortion and imprisonment. 'Without a crime, I became a criminal,' says Klara. The second half sees her returning to the unwelcoming bosom of Josef's family and falling pregnant again.

Wedekind shrugged off convention and dealt with sexual repression and hypocrisy in Spring Awakenings and his Lulu plays but the playwright's aims are hazier here.

We feel a throb of sympathy for Klara (the always-lucid Mariah Gale) but there's no accounting for why she goes back to her invidious lover (we're told she's independently wealthy). I, for one, spent much of the evening resisting a creeping urge to throttle Josef whenever he opened his mouth (Deka Walmsley's mannered performance doesn't help).

Deborah Bruce's production, part of a season of little-known German works at the Arcola, brings a clear, intelligent eye to a play that may hold more fascination for scholars of early 20th-century abortion laws than modern audiences.

In rep until May 7, Arcola Theatre, 27 Arcola Street E8, Mon to Sat 8pm, £12, £8 concs, Tue pay what you can. Tel: 020 7503 1646. www.arcolatheatre.com Rail: Dalston Kingsland

Musik (The Last Waltz Season)