HER critics were absent but Tessa Jowell deserved a five-star rating for her performance last night at a Shakespeare double-bill at the Unicorn Theatre in South London.

The Secretary of State for Culture took to the stage at the end of the evening with the bullish confidence of an Olivier-winner as she joined the Blairs at the directorial debut of their 17-year-old daughter, Kathryn.

Ms Jowell, whose role as a naive wife has been panned, watched 45-minute versions of Othello and The Taming of the Shrew performed by A-level students. Congratulating the actors while, making what was possibly an oblique political point, Ms Jowell said: “A good play needs no epilogue.” Subtext: the backbiting must stop?

“I had to slip in rather late,” she said to sympathetic nods from the stalls. “But I saw most of it and every time I see Othello it leaves me with this sense of disturbance for some time to come. Tonight was no exception.”

She even attempted a joke, to kind laughs: “The Taming of the Shrew! Isn’t it brilliant as we approach National Women’s Day.”

Then, in a bracing climax, Ms Jowell dared to mention the Prime Minister’s wife: “The work is something that I know Cherie feels is important, as do I”, she said in the crystal tones of an A* drama student. You could even hear her at the back.

It was a night of high tension for everyone, not just Kathryn Blair and the other directors and actors.

The Prime Minister arrived, proud as punch, on time, and was greeted swiftly by his daughter: “Gotta go!” she told him, after a quick exchange, and dashed back to her cast.

Ms Jowell slipped in at the back and caught most of Othello, keeping firm-jawed throughout Othello’s famous “O curse of marriage . . .” line. She did not sit with Tony Blair but she did join Mrs Blair in the front row later for The Taming of the Shrew. Mr Blair was unable to stay for it.

The project gives students the opportunity to set up their own theatre company. The Alchemist Theatre Company, the creation of students at the London Oratory School, the state school with one of the best reputations in the country, went head to head with the Palace Street Arts Theatre Company, the troupe attached to Westminster City School, which has one of the worst.

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