THIS week Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre plays host to the National Theatre’s Macbeth. Following their recent brilliant touring productions of Jane Eyre and War Horse, the expectations were high, writes the Times theatre critic Kerry Black.

With an open stage, with a huge central ramp, this is a dark, brutal retelling of Shakespeare’s renowned tragedy.

Despite being written over four hundred years ago, Macbeth has always had an ardent following amongst scholars and audiences alike. Often referred to as “the Scottish play”, it was refreshing to see and hear so many Scottish actors in the cast. Special mention must go to Michael Nardone in the title role. It turns out this Thane of Cawdor is actually a Fifer fae Ballingry! He gives a potent, compelling performance of a man driven by ambition to commit terrible crimes.

This is probably the darkest stage set I have ever seen. The action takes place in a contemporary or possibly even slightly futuristic setting, where warriors wear jeans and hoodies in a bleak landscape.

The King wears red and once Macbeth has seized the throne, he assumes his red suit, while his wife and fellow accomplice in murder wears a tattered, tarnished sequin dress, symbolising the poverty of fame. Kirsty Besterman’s portrayal of Lady Macbeth moves from arrogance, through greed to piteous despair and is the ideal pairing with Nardone’s powerful Macbeth.

Patrick Robinson, known to many as Ash from Casualty, certainly surprised me as Banquo whose ghostly vision haunts Macbeth, while Deka Walmsley’s strong Northern accent raises the profile of the Porter role. The entire cast is as strong as you would expect from the National Theatre, especially the females.

The Director Rufus Norris has stated that he wants to fire the imagination of students and it was interesting to see the array of ages in the theatre, especially since Shakespeare is not always part of the curriculum nowadays.

Macbeth crackles with supernatural power and here the three witches are inventively portrayed as a PVC clad, pole dancing trio of demented wraiths, however, I personally found their echoing voices hard to decipher. There are also spots in the play where the discordant musical background sounds completely distracted from the onstage action.

Macbeth is never going to be a pleasant jaunt to the theatre, you can taste the malevolence and despair in the air. It’s certainly the ideal show to see in the run up to Halloween, the characters with masks on the back of their heads could easily go out guising!

Macbeth runs till Saturday October 27 at The Festival Theatre, nightly at 7.30pm, plus matinees, book at www.capitaltheatres.com