The nautical Herman Melville is popping up repeatedly on theatrical radars this year. Moby-Dick was produced at the Arcola in April, and now Secret/Heart adapts this unfinished novella in which innocence and corruption are pitted against each other on a Royal Navy ship sailing to war against the French. At its heart is the sweet-faced and sweet-natured (and also press-ganged) sailor, Billy, who quickly wins the affection of his comrades, and a promotion from Captain Vere. But he also attracts the unwelcome attention of the vicious master-at-arms, Claggart, who is determined to break him.

It's easy to see why Benjamin Britten was attracted to this source material, and his haunting score for the opera retains much of the ambiguity of the original. A great deal that is implicit in the novel is made explicit in this version, which often lacks narrative tension and seems to use five words when one would do.

Oddly, however, the undercurrents in the relationship between Vere and Billy are underplayed, so the Captain's breakdown – which is used to frame the narrative – seems inexplicable. Even more strangely, despite Nicolai Hart-Hansen's atmospheric design of steel panels and netting (the latter effectively used in the final moments), there is no whiff of the sea, or any sense of the way its whims and cruelty salts the daily lives of the men who risk all on it.

As the innocent young Budd, Charlie Archer is impressive, hinting that Billy's unworldliness might be a learning disability. There is good support, too, from Iain Batchelor as Jenkins, who watches out for Billy. But like the adaptation, some of the performances are over-emphatic, and director Seb Harcombe is mistaken in encouraging Gerrard McArthur as Claggart to act as if he is simultaneously auditioning to play Richard III and a panto baddie.

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