('Second Opinion', published in the paper edition today - go see it immediately).

Masque of the Red Death
BAC, SW11

LONDON'S critics are united: Punchdrunk's interactive Edgar Allan Poe-inspired adventure in the Battersea Arts Centre left them in various states of dramatic, erotic arousal. The Independent's Paul Taylor confessed himself so turned on by the action he very nearly made a pass at one of the handsome performers; the Standard's own Nicholas de Jongh found himself fearing for the remains of his virtue.

Mine too is a smiling face: Masque of the Red Death, in which audience members don masks to walk unguided through the evocatively transformed gothic corridors, parlours, attics and basements of the BAC, is an LSD trip of a show, a lucid dream you won't want to wake from. I've half a mind to rent a small nook in the building for the remainder of the run.

Taken whole, the show, conceived by the remarkable Felix Barrett, offers an enticing glimpse of a theatrical future - a weird one, in which you may be spirited away by a lovesick waif, locked in a cupboard and fed gingerbread.

But oddly enough, it was one of the most old-fashioned aspects that I found myself most delighted by.

At the centre of the action, if you can find it, is a Victorian vaudeville, where you can remove your mask, drink absinthe and watch the perpetually rolling cabaret of striptease, magic and general silliness, led by a mischievous MC and a splendid little band. Lots of London venues have attempted this kind of thing in recent years, but I have never seen it done with such charming, infectious conviction (I have been humming the song 'When Father Papered the Parlour' ever since).

It's too much to hope Masque of the Red Death will roll on forever - but if Punchdrunk could find a permanent home for it vaudeville of delights, I can think of no better way to spend a Friday night.

* Booking to 12 January (020 7223 2223; www.bac.org.uk)