Cheek by Jowl’s exquisite production has been touring the world since its Russian premiere in 2003 but at last reaches London, closing the first of three month-long visits to the Barbican over the next three years. The production plays until Saturday and is absolutely a must for admirers of Cheek, of its two artistic directors, Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, and of Shakespeare himself, whose darkish comedy they reinvigorate, making it at times delicate as a butterfly yet strong as steel.

The Russian actors, all male, perform in their own language, with surtitles giving an indication of where they’ve reached in the scene. Donnellan repositions some speeches, and part of a later one by Viola now opens the play, probably to emphasise its joint themes of the search for unity and the recovery of what has been lost.

Music threads through the performance, wistful, lilting, and generally played by Orsino’s line of courtiers, standing gracefully at attention while awaiting his signal to begin. As with The Changeling, their other production here this year, the audience is seated on tiers that rise steeply from the very front of the stage. Black banners hang behind the actors for the first half, white following in the second, and costumes similarly change from funeral garb to the pristine clarity of a new day.

In the ancient Feste of Igor Yasulovich, rouge-cheeked, profile craggy as an eroded coastline, decades of endurance lie behind every dainty step. With Ilia Ilyin’s chubby Maria — the eventual Lady Belch — at least a decade of anxious devotion shows in her determined, yet hesitant, attendance.

Alexander Feklistov’s Sir Toby walks with the meticulous concern of the habitual drunkard; Andrey Kuzichev’s delicate Viola — man playing woman playing man — worries what to do with hands. One could go on.

The production becomes dance-like as the organised chaos draws to its conclusion. Dmitry Shcherbina’s Malvolio, whose terrifying longings close the first half, is a steward again when the play ends (a real innovation) but do not be complacent. Revenge will surely come somehow, to darken the brightness again.

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