Snow in Midsummer (starring Harry Potter's Katie Leung), Swan Theatre, Stratford - review

Playwright Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and director Justin Audibert are responsible for the "contemporary re-imagining."

Executed for a murder she did not commit, a young widow Dou Yi (Leung) vows that if she is innocent, snow will fall in midsummer and a catastrophic drought will strike.

Three years later, a businesswoman visits the parched town to take over a factory. When her young daughter is tormented by Dou Yi's angry ghost, her mother must expose the injustices Dou Yi suffered before the curse destroys every living thing.

On paper it sounds terrific: a great tale re-embroidered with modern threads of gay love, bribery, industrial pollution and China's shameful trade in the organs of executed criminals. There are some great lighting effects and powerful music, too.

But sadly, the whole is less than the sum of its parts and the RSC's first venture into translating the Chinese classics feels thin and rather worthy.

There are some fine moments and Leung's execution scene is genuinely moving. But you can't help wishing she, and some of the other Chinese actors in this gifted ensemble, had something better in which to show off their talents.

Snow in Midsummer is at the Swan until March 25.

By Peter Rhodes