The final line, echoing an earlier one, says that people don't do "that class of thing".Annis's full-blooded performance takes Hedda from the hauteur of the general's daughter to a crumpled, wide-eyed and quavery wreck. Brendan O'Hea's Lovborg, the role Strindberg thought was modelled on him, has a luxuriant black beard and strikingly intense manner to match. Frank McGuinness's translation stresses the sense of entrapment by class. As Tesman's aunt, Nyree Dawn Porter's pronounced physical affection for her nephew highlights Hedda's distance from her husband.

Move the play forward 100 years and he would come on wearing an anorak. Peter Bowles is a smooth and meticulous Judge Brack, whose friendship with Annis's Hedda turns into a series of teasing mind games It's a psycho-sexual power struggle between the two of them Bowles takes it about as far as it will go. When he leaves the house by the back door, he turns the line about having "nothing against back ways" into a little nudge about his sexual preferences.Castledine's production is strong on the sex that's not being had. Robert Bathurst plays Tesman, the scholar and new husband, with the boyish quickness and comic speech patterns of an Ayckbourn character. As anyone who has followed her career will know, Annis looks terrific.

But without wishing to be ungallant, there's no way she could be 29 This isn't a question of looks, but spirit. There's a maturity in her manner that leaves you thinking that Tesman, her new husband, is unlikely to be her first.The controlled nuances of her husky voice, her poised sexuality, the careful spinning-out of individual words - even the way her cheekbones instinctively seek out the best light - keep putting us in mind of an older woman. We feel that her Hedda would have had more than one chance to escape this deadening provincialism.Annie Castledine's production contains some highly individual performances that could have come from different plays. Last week it was possible to catch them on consecutive nights - in Plymouth and Guildford - and witness the impact of the kiss that never was. In Plymouth, Francesca Annis plays Hedda, the young wife just back from her honeymoon and reckless with boredom. According to her, Ibsen spoke of divorcing his wife and travelling with her Yet nothing happened The playwright and the girl didn't even kiss.