The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 42

12 Wednesday October 14 1998 The Guardian Arts Theatre Oresteia Barbican, London and the dialectic between Orestes and Clytemnestra. And in the last play, The Eumenides, the judgment of Orestes is accomplished by a group of puppet-jurors, with Athena literally pulling the strings. The final play always presents a problem. How can we swallow Apollo's argument that Orestes's matricide is forgiveable on the grounds that the woman is no parent but simply "a nurse to the Palpably we can't. But the process of judgment itself needs to be taken seriously.

A rigged trial denies the genuine drama of the jury's split decision. Athena's determination to cast her ballot for Orestes also reflects the Athenian practice of acquitting defendants who received a divided vote. Purcarete's cynical view that we are witnessing the birth of phallocracy rather than democracy may be intellectually tenable but it fatally undercuts Athena's climactic plea for peace and harmony. Michael Billington At the Barbican, London EC2 (0171-638 8891), till Saturday and Birmingham Rep (0121-236 4455) (ram October 20 to 24. The Barbican's first international season reaches a bizarre climax with Silviu Purcarete's version of Aeschy-lus's Oresteia, presented by the National Theatre of Craiova.

How do we read this monumental trilogy? Traditionally as a journey from savagery to civilization, from blood-grudge to nascent democracy. Purcarete has few problems with the savagery. The Agamemnon is well staged, with the Watchman seen atop eagle-crested battlements, the bulky-suited Chorus sniggering at Clytemnestra's protestations of wifely loyalty and the returning hero nervously setting foot on the red carpet she has prepared. The sight of Chtemnestra standing astride the bloodbath containing the bodies of her husband and his mistress has a brutal power, but the use of Siegfried's Rhine Journey from Got-tcrdammerung as a leitmotif sits ill with the iconoclastic tone. The story of The Libation Bearers is told largely through images, which minimises both Electra's grief Pidgin Macbeth Piccadilly Theatre, London Why would any actress want to play Cleopatra? She was the ruin of Vivien Leigh and Tallulah Bankhead.

Is she just too hot for us to handle, asks Michael Billington sible, although a familiarity with Shakespeare's original and the actors' enthusiastic mugging will probably see you through. There are some advantages to this language. The play, transposed to Vanatu, is shorter, most of the soliloquys become quite snappy and the language itself is vibrantly expressive. So King Duncan is now Bigfala Jif Tunkun and Lady Mac-beth's "Come you spirits attend on mortal thoughts, and unsex me here" becomes the delightfully succinct "Scton, takem mi handbag." Even so, quite a lot of the evening passes without a great deal of point and the laughs are pretty hit and miss. While there arc some brilliant touches, the wealth of good humour doesn't always make up for the loss of subtlety and poetry.

Lyn Gardner Till October 30. Box-office: 01 71 -369 1 734. Can this be serious? Well, as serious as you would expect from Ken Campbell, theatre's most anarchic cultural terrorist, whose ammunition is almost always of the custard pie variety. He has not entirely given up his other theatrical activities, but he is currently devoting himself to the Wol Wpntok world language movement Wol Wontok is based on the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Republic of Vanatu. It is variously called Tok Pifin, Pidgin or Bislama.

Hence Pidgin Macbeth or Macbed Blong Wilum Sckstia, as it is rendered here. In the enjoyably dotty prc-inter-val talk, Campbell insists that anyone can learn Wol Wontok in just two days. In fact, a lot of Pidgin Macbeth is entirely incomprehen Still the biggest Thieves Like Us sting that bites back. In the antics of Dogo and his partner in crime Sule, who find themselves a job with hours to suit and where you Southwark Playhouse, London get to travel a lot, Bandele conjures up the landscape or Nigeria, from remote villages to bustling cities, where people are laws unto them asp disaster in the world? On the outskirts of a small village, a man hammers on the door of a house. The door is reluctantly opened and the stranger admitted.

He informs the elderly occupant that he has been bitten by a cobra and will shortly die. In the meantime, he tells the old man the story of his life, about his time as a barman and how he became a thief. Developed from a radio play, Biyi Bandele's drama treads the territory of scams and cons so brilliantly tackled by David Mamct. But that's America and this is Nigeria, and, whereas Mamet's language is hard and brittle, Ban-dele's has the soft, limpid clarity of a still pool of water. This is not a substantial piece of work, but it is an appealing one marked by humour that is childlike but never childish and by storytelling that makes the most of the selves and one wrong move can bring down the fury of the mob.

Living with risk, whether now or in the hereafter, arid religious and ethical belief are major themes in a play dominated by the larger-than-life figure of Sule, a devout Muslim who refuses a drink but will make use of a Guinness to fleece his fellow countrymen. Part fable, part morality talc and part shaggy snake story, Ban-dele's teeming world is beautifully brought to life in Mehmet Ergcn's finely acted production. A slight but slippery piece of theatre. LG At Southwark Playhouse, London SE1 till October 24. (0171 -620 3494).