THE FRINGE / Alien Pinter

Theatre ought to be, you feel, a universal language, like mathematics. Unfortunately, that isn't how things work out in practice - a point drummed home by the slamming of seats every time the lights dimmed during the National Theatre of Craiova's production of The Caretaker, paying a flying visit to Watermans in Brentford last week, writes Robert Hanks.

To be fair to all parties, that may just have been because some of the audience hadn't spotted the small print pointing out that this was in Romanian; and the language barrier was never entirely overcome. What was interesting was seeing how familiar Pinter was translated, in dramatic terms, into something alien, with Davies a Chaplinesque clown, Aston presented blatantly as a Christ figure.

Something also gets lost in the translation in Geoffrey Beevers' adaptation of Balzac's Pere Goriot at the Orange Tree, though here it's the translation from prose to drama that causes trouble. The staging is both minimal and unnecessarily obtrusive, with tables and benches constantly switched around, actors rushing in and out, and perfunctory doubling of characters - costumes are changed, but voices and manners seem to remain the same. There is some fine acting, especially Will Knightley's villainously charismatic Vautrin; and the bare bones of the story, of social ambition and corruption in 19th- century Paris, come across well. In the end, though, it lacks emotional punch.

In the end, Sue Lefton's production of A Doll's House at New End has plenty of emotional punch. But to begin with it tries your patience, with a Nora (Rachel Joyce) so knowing and ironic that you expect Helmer to turn round and ask if she's taking the piss. The advantage is that when she does acquire wisdom, the transformation is easy to believe; so that eventually, patience is rewarded.

'Pere Goriot', to 12 March, the Orange Tree, Richmond (081-940 3633). 'A Doll's House', to 27 February, New End Theatre, London NW3 (071-794 0022).