Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff

Disciplined, raw physical power is what's needed to bring off Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Kafka's novella, and that's exactly what this young company provides in their highly imaginative production.

The operative word is disciplined.As Gregor wakes one morning to find that he has somehow become an insect we still see a young man but the horror that others see is provided by actors swarming all over a metal climbing frame, seemingly at random but always with precisely worked out moves.

The whole thing is given an appropriately German Expressionist feel by heavily stylised make-up and by over-emphatic acting, which is exactly what is needed. I have no actors' names to attach to parts so characters will have to do. Gregor has immense charm and likeability, showing us the true pathos of a good man unable any longer to make others understand him.

Father is pompous and frightened, mother caring but at a loss and sister loving, scared and finally finding it all too much. These are the three most colourful characters, literally, and each of them makes a very strong impression. So do the four lodgers, wonderfully OTT creations of vanity and complaint.

But it's the insect chorus that makes the production so memorable. Their writhing movements are sinister, their eating sounds are disgusting, their scuttling is unnerving and the way faces emerge from the mass is chilling.

It's good Berkoff, it's good Kafka and it's good theatre.