En route to modern Dunsinane there is a sign advertising "the Macbeth Experience". That's what I felt I had watching Max Stafford-Clark's amazing, peripatetic Out of Joint production. By making it a site-specific show and by setting it in a lawless African state, Stafford-Clark gives the play an urgency rarely found in conventional productions.
We start in the Playhouse paint-shop, where a voodoo ritual is taking place and francophone witches plant thoughts of regicide in Macbeth's mind. We then move into a drawing room, backstage, where we find Monica Dolan's Lady Macbeth - the only white adult in the cast - curled up on a chaise longue. This is the setting for the unfolding drama, except for two brief excursions to an adjoining room: one to become nervous guests at the Macbeths' banquet, the other to inspect Lady Macduff's ravished corpse and her childrens' dismembered toys.
The danger of this approach is that it reinforces a stereotypical "heart of darkness" view of Africa. But Stafford-Clark avoids this by ensuring everything is rooted in fact: Macbeth's assumption of kilt and regimental gear is based on Idi Amin's identification with Scottish independence, and his cross-dressing soldiers are drawn from Liberia's transvestite warriors. Stafford-Clark also brings out the brutal contradictions of civil war. The most chilling moment comes when Ross, having been forced at machete-point to kill Macduff's children, later guiltily informs him of their slaughter.
Instead of spectators we are apprehensive participants. Having first been treated by Danny Sapani's powerful Macbeth as confidants when he tells us "the greatest is behind", it is unnerving to find him transformed into a genocidal monster.
Lady Macbeth's isolation is enhanced by Dolan's role as the trophy wife of a warlord. But there is much wit in the staging - as when the official portrait of Ben Onwukwe's excellent Duncan is stealthily replaced by that of Macbeth. The production reaches a triumphant climax when the cast joins forces in a Scots dirge, composed by Felix Cross, that eerily echoes the opening incantatory rituals.
The production will doubtless look different wherever it tours. But Stafford-Clark's direction and Es Devlin's design create a horrifically convincing milieu and implicate us in the tragedy while allowing us to assess its contemporary relevance. This is the full Macbeth experience.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 01865 305305. Then touring.
