Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- On one London stage, some students gnaw at each other with loathing, despair and neurotic eroticism. On another, two sweet Victorian children sing nursery rhymes and play with dolls. It’s not hard to guess which has the more disturbing impact: As ever, less is more.

The students are characters in Ferdinand Bruckner’s patchy 1926 play “Pains of Youth” at the National Theatre. Marie is a sensible hardworking type with a spineless writer boyfriend nicknamed Dolly. Desiree is Marie’s neurotic, suicide-obsessed room-mate. Freder is a coldhearted power freak who mentally tortures everyone around him, just for fun.

There are some scenes of enjoyably steamy melodrama when another student steals Marie’s boyfriend. Marie then embarks upon a tortured lesbian affair with Desiree. “Let’s die together,” cries the latter, adding “Bourgeois existence or suicide, there’s no other option.”

For all that, Bruckner is also too hasty in his attempt to give a full forensic portrait of the anxieties of the young in post-World War II Vienna. Ennui? Tick. Neurosis? Tick. Crumbling authority structures replaced by fascism? Tick.

Katie Mitchell has hit and miss moments in her direction. On the plus side, she lets the melodramatic confrontations boil up nicely. Her decision to locate the action in a realistic 1920s parquet-floor apartment, and in period costume, creates a suitably claustrophobic atmosphere too.

Somber Figures

On the down side, some of the scenes are emotionally monochrome. A long dialogue between Dolly and his new girlfriend Lucy is too unvaried in its nervous, twitching awkwardness to be successful.

In between the acts, anonymous figures in dark modern dress cover the whole set in transparent dust-sheets, as if the play were being shut up in a museum. Maybe it’s meant to be an ironic comment on the dated nature of the piece. Whatever the reason, it creates some unintentional mismatch comedy when they spend too long cleaning the set while nerve-jangling 12-tone music accompanies them. Drudgery and expressionist horror have never been so amusingly mated.

Laura Elphinstone is fine as Marie, and her journey from level-headed calmness to broken wreck is beautifully charted. If the other roles don’t present the same opportunities, the rest of the cast works hard. Rating: **.

‘Turn of the Screw’

For real horror, and a more imaginative use of 12-tone music, it’s hard to beat “The Turn of the Screw” at English National Opera.

Benjamin Britten’s opera tells the story of a Victorian governess who comes to believe that her two young charges, Miles and Flora, are being tempted by evil spirits.

David McVicar creates an atmosphere of terrifying ambiguity with the most economical of means. The gloomy set is sparsely furnished with tatty lumber-room clutter. A few dirty glass screens slide on and off to give opportunities for spying and eavesdropping. Lighting designer Adam Silverman ensures there are plenty of haunting shadows and dark corners.

Charles Mackerras, who first conducted the opera in 1954 soon after its Venice premiere, brings a brilliance, clarity and astonishing freedom to the score. In his hands, some scenes have an eerie, almost klezmer-like sound, which I had never appreciated before.

The cast could hardly be better. Rebecca Evans sings with sweet vulnerability as the naive young governess, and Charlie Manton and Nazan Fikret mix innocence and fear as the children. This screw couldn’t turn any tighter. Rating: ****.

“Pains of Youth” is in repertory at the National Theatre through Jan. 21, 2010. For more information, go to http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call +44-7452-3000. “The Turn of the Screw” is in repertory at ENO until Nov. 9. For details, see http://www.eno.org or call +44-871-911-0200.

(Warwick Thompson is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

What the Stars Mean:
****      Excellent
***       Good
**        Average
*         Poor
(No stars)Worthless

To contact the writer of the story: Warwick Thompson, in London, at warwicktho@aol.com.

Last Updated: October 29, 2009 20:00 EDT