Old Fire Station, Oxford The Oxford Theatre Guild's seasonal offering is Christopher Denys's version of the medieval plays, The Mysteries, which can be seen at the Old Fire Station until December 14.

Assisted by a small choir who provide musical interludes from the gallery, in a style which is sweetly tuneful but lacks diction, Gerard Gould's production takes us from Creation to the Resurrection in under three hours.

Both the original mysteries and Denys's version of them are couched in deceptively simple language.

Yet too often this production (like others before it) falls into the trap of taking simplicity for naivety, and in consequence fails to bring out the revolutionary power of the Biblical message that the words convey.

So the voice of Matthew Fleet's John the Baptist is more of a whimper than a radical cry in the wilderness, and even God himself (Mac McFadden) rarely sounds commanding.

Intriguingly, the exceptions to this are mostly characters ranked among the evil rather than the good.

Colin Burnie is a most beguiling Satan who finds Eve (Kathryn Schofield) a total pushover when it comes to sampling apples, while Alex Nicholls is a magnificent King Herod.

Matt Addis almost pulls it off as Jesus, though after a powerful debut preaching the Sermon on the Mount among the audience he too retreats into something of a meek and mild character.

The crucifixion scene is spectacular, with the added fascination of horror when the cross lurches forward towards the audience.

For the most part, the play proceeds at a good pace, although the interlude with the shepherds, originally a separate play, might usefully have been speeded up, sparing the audience the temptation to fall asleep with them on their hillside.

But, for sheer irritation, a programme which lists all 39 cast members alphabetically according to their first name rather than as characters in order of appearance, is hard to beat.

PAULA CLIFFORD