George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, written in 1920, is about emotional and idealistic confusion and, at its end and heart, about the recent war. Full marks for topicality then to Indhu Rubasingham's perfectly decent revival.
The House is that ruled by mad savant Captain Shotover and inhabited by his divinely bohemian daughter and son-in-law Hector and Hesione Hushabye. As unwitting bourgeois types are lured to their drawing room, the accents and romantic concerns suggest a comedy of manners.
Being Shaw, though, it is really a play of ideas. Through Ellie Dunn, who loved Hector and now seeks another marriage, we see how romantic heartbreak can lead to engagement with life's pragmatics, and the play develops into being about the opposition of silly fantasies and true political involvement.
As the characters move from comic types to wider significance some of Rubasingham's cast come unstuck. Dale Rapley manages to be both highfalutinly funny and convincingly disillusioned as the proudly moustachioed Hector, but as opposed sisters Ariadne and Hesione, Teresa Banham and Suzan Sylvester are too similar in their world-weary charm. It means some lines get lost in this fugue of lost fantasies.
Shaw's ending - a major coup de théâtre - still convincingly damns the decadent class he portrays, but as you marvel at his boldness, the characters he has picked at for the preceding hours fade from memory.
Until 14 April (01923 225671).
Heartbreak House
Watford Palace Theatre
Clarendon Road
Watford
