This narrative poem of chivalry, Arthurian myth and romance ought to cut a considerable dash on the stage, particularly when the version of the text involved is Simon Armitage's sinewy, witty translation of the original northeastern-inflected Middle English. But the adapter/director Daniel Buckroyd's touring production for New Perspectives fights shy of the work's darkest and most intriguing aspects and feels awkwardly unsure of its audience. No potentially thrilling moment has the faintest shiver of danger; no instance of romance or eroticism is allowed to pass without a snigger.

The juvenile tone is set by the show's four performers, who, wearing modern dress and the bland grins of a quartet of kids' TV presenters, share the narration and role-playing. Their task is not a small one: the story calls for a terrifying verdant giant, new year carousing in Camelot, horseback hunting expeditions and a climactic confrontation in the leafy Green Chapel, where the young Gawain must prove his courage and purity.

Unfortunately Buckroyd's approach proves sadly pedestrian and singularly lacking in wonderment. Juliet Shillingford's set - a simple platform semi-surrounded by a forest of wooden poles - while not especially exciting, offers a serviceable space for theatrical invention. But the production's use of stick puppetry and shadow play is tame and clumsy; the decapitation of a far from imposing Green Knight is suggested merely by the removal of the actor's wig and beard.

What's worse, though, is the production's lack of swashbuckling spirit, and its reluctance to embrace the tale fully. Armitage's text offers plenty of scope for humour, but it also has intensity - yet, presumably in an attempt to keep younger spectators engaged, Buckroyd skirts around any emotionally challenging elements and opts simply to send the whole thing up. So Gawain is played by a gangling Freddie Machin (pictured, with Vera Chok as Lady) less as a green but courageous young hero than as a gormless sissy. The homoerotic kisses and scenes of attempted seduction he shares with a mysterious Lord and beautiful Lady who offer him hospitality are delivered amid groaning, gurning and puerile giggles. The Lord's gory hunting conquests, served up by Armitage with such squelching crimson relish, are conveyed in feeble mime.

It's hardly surprising that, after such a lame build-up, Gawain's submission to the Green Knight's gleaming axe blade should seem of so little consequence. A half-hearted treatment of a full-blooded classic.

Touring until March 21 (www.newperspectives.co.uk)

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