Lulu at the Gate, W11

Anna Ledwich’s adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s seminal late 19th-century German drama is part of New Directions, a joint initiative between the Gate and Headlong Theatre in which emerging directors are invited to put a fresh authorial stamp on a classic text. Ledwich also directed it, steering a fine cast through her almost fiendishly incisive script with a gratifyingly sure hand.

What a timelessly ripe and ambiguous morality tale Wedekind concocted, and one that remains scarily relevant when so many girls and women are being abused or killed on a daily basis globally. Groomed as a plaything of men from childhood, Lulu slips between obsessive husbands and predatory lovers (and one lovelorn female admirer) with all the loyalty of a cat. A heart attack, a suicide and murder spur her on. But is she a shameless temptress or the victim of their desires? Although physically nothing like the iconic Lulu of Louise Brooks from the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, Sinead Matthews is nevertheless sensationally apt casting with her small stature, peaches and cream skin, blonde hair and a voice that frequently breaks into husky giggles. An infantilised femme fatale with a mercurial temperament, this Lulu has the moral sense of a resilient animal.