It is often suggested that, in their own time, Shakespeare's plays provided the mass entertainment that soap operas offer today. So it should be a short leap from Albert Square to Padua for Ross Kemp, best known as Grant Mitchell in EastEnders and now making his first stab at Shakespeare.
Kemp's Petruchio is scuppered by an indifferent production - the first I've seen for some time that plays the chauvinistic plot straight - and his lack of verse-speaking skills. He is a charismatic presence, but not a pleasant one to hear.
Looking in his tweeds and riding boots like a character from PG Wodehouse who has accidentally wandered into early 1960s Italy, Kemp enunciates every word in the style of an Englishman abroad talking to stupid foreigners. It sounds as if the entire text is being spoken in inverted commas. Meanwhile, his eyebrows wildly signal that this Petruchio is having his little joke.
It is, of course, a pretty unpalatable joke if you are female, particularly as Nichola McAuliffe's wonderful Katherina is so vulnerable and damaged. Katherina is the much older sister of Bianca, who has usurped her in their father's affection. No wonder she is starving for attention. McAuliffe is moving as she makes the journey from dysfunctional daughter left on the shelf to mature woman discovering love. The play meets its match in McAuliffe; it is just a shame she has neither a production nor a Petruchio to give her - and the audience- a real tussle to enjoy.
· Until October 18. Box office: 01483 440000. Then touring.
