Kiss Me Kate is flawed but irresistible

It’s a funny, clever, seditious piece – inspired by the real-life off-stage battling between the husband-and-wife actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during their 1935 production of The Taming of the Shrew – that has about as many levels to it as the Empire State Building and is every bit as elegantly designed.

As the warring protagonists, Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar and Broadway import Stephanie J Block go at it hammer and tongs, but, while they clearly have a lot of fun, they are perhaps a little too old for their roles. Dunbar delights, however, in the opportunity to be outrageously hammy and it’s hard not to be amused by him.

The big show-stopper – Brush Up Your Shakespeare – is performed with such aplomb by Hammed Animashaun and Nigel Lindsay that they arguably steal the whole show. There is an amusing turn, too, from Peter Davidson – once the boyish Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small and later Doctor Who – as a portly American general trying to win the heart of the show-within-a-show’s leading lady.

It’s a big enough show to make the most of the Barbican’s vast stage and Michael Yeargan’s opulent set design – and Catherine Zuber’s costumes – make it a joy to behold. A flawed but nevertheless irresistible production.