SOMETHING wicked this way comes to one of Oxford’s colleges this summer.

Creation Theatre, Oxford’s largest theatre production company, has announced its staging of Macbeth in the gardens of Lady Margaret Hall.

Chief executive Lucy Askew said: “The prospect of setting witches, murder and war against the elegant backdrop of Lady Margaret Hall’s gardens makes this show an exciting one for Creation.

“Macbeth is the perfect title as the sun goes down on a warm evening and we won’t be shying away from the darker aspects of the play.”

Written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth tells the story of a Scottish general who is told by a group of witches that he will become King of Scotland.

Consumed by ambition, he kills the king and takes the throne for himself, but is then overcome by paranoia and guilt.

Macbeth has become famous for both its theatrical superstition – speaking the play’s name inside a theatre will cause disaster, actors instead referring to it as ‘the Scottish Play’ – and its quotations, many of which have come into common parlance, including ‘out damned spot!’ and ‘one fell swoop’.

Macbeth runs from August 1-September 13 and tickets will be available from mid-May at creationtheatre.co.uk