Some poets claim that actors and actresses, even famous performers, should never be allowed to lift a book of verse on stage.

People who make such harsh statements have surely never experienced a poetry reading by Roger Lloyd Pack and Jemma Redgrave.It is true that actors will seek out the excitement and drama of words, sometimes at the expense of metre, - where the verse is particularly formal.But if the purpose of speaking verse in public is to remind an audience that language can be surprising, thrilling and moving, then Lloyd Pack and Redgrave succeeded superbly.The hall of the John Masefield High School was packed on Sunday for what will surely go down as a highlight of the 2008 festival.The selection had been chosen in the main by the public, with the traditional, established canon out in force.It was curious how fresh the words of Shakespeare's sonnets sounded, when recited by professionals.It was moving at times to see Lloyd Pack so moved, and to hear him recite several challenging poems from memory, including the Dantesque war poem "Strange Meeting" by Wilfrid Owen.Redgrave's approach was gentler, with a slower, musing pace, and her rendition of Jenny Joseph's "Warning", about old ladies wearing purple, went down particulary well.The best performance of the evening for me was Lloyd Pack's reading of "My Last Duchess" by Browning, because he really brought out the poem's sinister drama.But his recital of "Ode to a Nightingale" by Keats was also memorable, as an intense reminder of all that poetry can and should be.