Product placement tends to be something you associate with film and TV, but the most blatant example of it I've ever seen occurs in Creation Theatre Company's production, which succeeds in introducing a BMW and a couple of Minis into Macbeth. God forbid if they ever tackle The Tempest.
Still, the production does take place in part of the car plant at Cowley, which provides a large, pristine industrial space as an alternative to a traditional theatre. The evening proves (apart from the fact that a BMW would be a nice present) that almost all Shakespeare is infinitely more enjoyable for being taken out of a cross-arch setting, but that plonking it down in another space does not necessarily add anything meaningful. Apart from the cars, the production's only reference to its setting comes in the storm that rages on the night of Duncan's murder, which has a pleasingly industrial thump and boom.
Zoe Seaton's production has speediness on its side and is full of ideas. But it doesn't always distinguish between the good and bad ones, and you sense a lack of confidence in its inability to see any of them through.
It begins strongly with Macbeth and Banquo stumbling across a single witch reflected back as three in the dressing room of a fairground freak show. But apart from the subsequent appearance of Banquo's ghost as a disembodied head on a platter, the fairground motif and sense of being tricked by illusions are never fully developed. By the second half it is as if Seaton is just throwing everything she can think of at the play. You get opera, video, magnified beating hearts and bloody boiling red smoke until you are quite worn down by sensory overload.
When Seaton takes things more quietly and lets the play breathe a bit, some of the actors acquit themselves well: Marie McCarthy's Lady Macbeth has potential, suggesting a 1940s matron who swaps the WI and jam-making for ambition and murder; Jamie Bower's Macduff has presence; and although Richard Stacey's Macbeth needs more personality, his performance is assured. You could do worse - but Creation could have done so much better.
· Until March 23. Box office: 01865 245745.
