Chekhov is updated to Forties Liverpool in this new reading of Three Sisters by playwright Diane Samuels (Kindertransport) and actress and writer Tracy-Ann Oberman (best known for playing Chrissie Watts in EastEnders).

Written to mark Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture, the production transfers from the Everyman, where it received glowing reviews.

A year after their father's death three sisters live a life of faded grandeur, longing for escape to New York (a nice updating of the original longing for Moscow). Bored, directionless, they flirt with suitors (a series of American-Jewish GIs) and watch in horror as their lower-class sister-in-law (a fantastically nasty Daisy Lewis) colonises the house.

Part of the pleasure here comes from spotting the Jewish transpositions (director Lindsay Posner's last production was Fiddler on the Roof). But there are serious flaws.

At times it seems a period drama more suited to TV (a Jewish Forsyte Saga, perhaps). You long for the camera to crane in closer. But the acting is superb (especially Suzan Sylvester as May, Chekhov's Masha) and the ideas never less than interesting.

In the end the writing lets it down. Act two - basically a chance for the actors to give big speeches - could be 40 minutes shorter. And tying the narrative to Forties politics does limit the piece.

The great thing about Chekhov is that he deals in themes - unrequited love, the futility of work - which float free of any one interpretation.

But as a snapshot of post-war Jewish life - the hope, the idealism (before it tips into full-scale Zionism), and most of all the fear (aunts living with suitcases packed) - it is often tremendously moving.

• Until 29 March (020 7722 9301, www.hampsteadtheatre.com).