Macbeth

Shakespeare's Scottish play is famously a work of obscure birds clamouring the livelong night and midnight hags shrieking over bubbling cauldrons; it's not obviously the stuff that family shows and outdoor matinees (original Jacobean stage practices notwithstanding) are made on.

So director Steve Marmion and his team are to be congratulated on this breezy 'reimagining', which is performed in daylight against a towering white backdrop on which characters sketch ominous hangmen and spraypaint comments about the progress of the action. It's giddily eclectic fun: Macbeth practises his cricket strokes in the midst of battle, Macduff high-fives spectators after slaying the tyrant. Audience participation is strongly encouraged, with pantomimic consequences.

Blood is spilt at the end to loud cheers, which certainly gives the whole an unusual texture.
Counterbalancing such strongly anti-traditional invention is a firm emphasis on speaking the verse clearly and rhythmically. Trevor White's Macbeth may not be a match for Ian McKellen's in terms of psychological intensity (difficult when you have to deliver the 'I have lived long enough' speech while splashing about playfully in a paddling pool), but like the rest of the cast he speaks the words so to allow their full imaginative and musical force to be felt.