Chichester Festival Theatre has unveiled its new production of Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice and, like the curate's egg, it is good in parts.

It is a modern-dress affair, something akin to The Godfather meeting The Pawnbroker and it has one of the most distracting sets I have ever seen.

With this year's theme being Venice, the stage has been flooded with water but, on this set, I am not sure we are in Venice.

The backdrop is steel and concrete, for all the world like a luxury Manhattan apartment block surrounded by water.

The ripple effect on the theatre's walls is irritating and the changing layouts of the bridges across the water involves far too much splashing around.

This dark comedy is played very much for laughs and somehow the modern nature of it makes the anti-Semitism much more shocking.

We can dismiss it in period productions as being just something that happened then but this production, directed by Gale Edwards, confronts the racism head on and it makes for some disturbing theatre.

It is made more harrowing by Desmond Barrit's Shylock, a wonderful and mesmerising portrait of principle under adversity.

This is a Shylock that may be the loser but certainly wins the audience's heart.

Philip Quast's Antonio is good, too. He speaks beautifully with clear and penetrating diction. Of all the Christians, he is one of the more honest and least excitable of the bunch.

He is a proud man trying to do his best to live up to the unspeakable bond of giving up a pound of flesh he has so willingly signed.

The rest of this ensemble cast is not so good and most disappointing is Niamh Cusack's performance as Portia. There is something of a smugness about her and, sometimes, a loss of clear diction.

There is a whiff of arrogance about Portia which I could not get to grips with. In her Quality Of Mercy speech, it was delivered in such a downbeat manner I almost missed it.

This production also includes some music - violin, clarinet and keyboards - but it is loud and piercing and unnecessary.

For me, Shakespeare works best on a timeless set, in timeless costumes. What we really need is the text.

My plea to directors of almost all shows is to return to the text and the intentions of the writer.

Modern dress here, with sharp designer suits and smart sets, just distracts from the quality.

For tickets and information, call 01243 781312.