Sartre's vision is Hell on Earth

"Hell," wrote Jean-Paul Sartre quotably in this, his best-known play, "is other people." In Drew Ackroyd's good-looking production, it initially seems as though Hell is rather an opulent, decadent nightspot.

Red velvet drapes run enticingly down to the black chrome floor and a heavy chandelier sparkles overhead. The "other people", when they enter, are suitably dressed in tuxedos and sumptuous satin gowns. Full marks to designer Atlanta Duffy and costume supremo Francesco Santoro.

Unfortunately, such meticulous attention to surface detail seems to have spared little time for much else. Ackroyd offers no compelling reasons as to why this greatly over-performed work should not be left to rest in peace once this centenary year of Sartre's birth has been duly marked.

At first, it seems inconceivable that Garcin, the editor of a pacifist newspaper, lesbian postal worker Ines and pretty young wife Estelle can have been judged and consigned to the other place. Gradually, however, uncomfortable truths about the lives they have just departed begin to slip out.

Eternity for this particular trio will consist of torture not by fiery furnaces, but by the things they have done - or left undone - on Earth, endlessly picked over by the roommates they didn't choose.

At its best, Huis Clos can crackle with tension as a desperate sexual power game develops. Here, a weak turn from Emile Faurie as Garcin destroys the delicate balance of passions, which impressive performances from the two actresses cannot restore.

Suzy Cooper's Estelle is a flighty, flirty blonde, terrified by this brave new underworld in which she is not permitted a mirror to admire her pretty face and apply fresh lashings of blood-red lipstick.

Her sense of self-worth is derived solely from the succession of men she entices, which means that seducing Garcin becomes a necessity. Kristin Milward's grimly determined Ines, however, has something to say about that. The role of perpetual voyeur is not one she is keen to assume.

Yet unless some director has a startling new take on Sartre's existentialism, Hell will be another production of Huis Clos in the near future.

Until 25 September. Information: 020 7226 1916.

Huis Clos (Or No Way Out)