It says a lot about our troubled sensibilities that, on witnessing a host of potentially explosive showdowns between Jew and Christian, Muslim and Jew, we automatically fear the worst.
Especially as the setting is Jerusalem, 1192, at the time of the Third Crusade. Then, as now, the Holy Land was no stranger to blood spilled due to religious intolerance.
But such negativity discounts the fact that Nathan the Wise (1779) is the work of that great writer, humanist and all-round optimist of the German Enlightenment, Gotthold Lessing. Thus his most famous play, inexplicably unproduced in London for nearly 40 years, upliftingly preaches tolerance and multi-faith co-existence.
The three great monotheistic religions come into contact via the sultan Saladin, a young Knight Templar and the eponymous Jew. An intricate web of connections is woven, as the Templar rescues Nathan's daughter from a fire and the bankrupt Saladin asks the wealthy merchant for help.
When Edward Kemp's confident new translation was first heard two years ago at Chichester, it graced a suitably accomplished production. Too often here, director Anthony Clark lets the tone go worryingly flat. Some below-par performances and uneven line learning don't help.
But Michael Pennington steadies everything with his astute Nathan, sidestepping Saladin's importuning with 1,001 Nights-style storytelling. Sam Troughton's Templar is all proud, impetuous, youthful conviction and Vincent Ebrahim as Saladin has a lovely way of making the most unpromising-sounding statements end positively.
Patrick Connellan's evocative design has palm trees overhang a backdrop of burnished gold sliding panels and a typical mosaic design printed on the wooden floor. It's a tranquil aesthetic, suitable for this unusual fable of the still, small voice of peace winning through in the Middle East.
Until October 15. Information: 020 7722 9301.
Nathan The Wise
