Although it's not often found in the outdoor Shakespeare repertoire, Macbeth is of course ideally suited to darkening skies and threatening clouds. For their first production of the summer season the Creation Theatre Company have taken full advantage of their Headington Hill Park setting, with a production that is full of action and well endowed with dark portents.

At first sight, the set, based as always around a magnificent chestnut tree, seems pretty ordinary. But look more closely and you'll see that there really are bones dangling from the branches, and human heads are set on poles bordering the stage with always room for one more. The wooden staging built up against the tree's huge trunk (pictured on the Weekend cover) contains its own water trough: not for the Macbeths to wash their blood-stained hands but for Macduff's baby to meet a watery grave. At times the water steams and even appears to bubble as if in a cauldron, in answer to the weird sisters' imprecations.

From the outset, the amplified hooting of owls blends with the sound of the park's own wildlife, and thunder cracks ominously overhead, all perfectly in keeping with the appearance of the weird sisters. That one of them is a man simply highlights their weirdness, and with another doubling as Lady Macbeth there is a spine-chilling moment when she delivers her warning to "beware Macduff". The sisters actually drink their nasty potion and fall into frightening trances before delivering their prophecies in strange out-of-body voices.

Eleanor Montgomery, who in the early scenes appears almost impossibly young and carefree, is an intriguing Lady Macbeth (and weird sister) with tragically little time to enjoy her husband's presence before suffering takes over. In her sleepwalking scene she is convulsed with sobs, and death surely comes as a merciful release.

The intimate setting enables the actors to engage fully with the audience, which seems particularly to suit Tom Peters as Macbeth. Although his likeable appearance is belied by his actions, it is hard not to feel for him when thunderous knocking at the door drives him to distraction. The drunken porter (Richard Evans) also excels in these surroundings, and there is a thoroughly enjoyable moment when he singles out members of the audience as Frenchmen, politicians or lawyers, all of whom were very probably there somewhere.

The outdoor setting is always good for the fight scenes, although on current showing Macbeth really should have overcome Macduff, whose swordplay seems surprisingly hesitant, given the passions that inflame him. And talking of flames, up in the tree there's a structure like a giant fungus that develops a red glow with the "Is this a dagger?" speech and grows ever redder as the bloodshed mounts. Exactly what it represents is a puzzle, but it's pretty effective nonetheless.

Several members of the cast have appeared in previous productions by the company and it was a pleasure to see Dubliner Seamus Allen again (as Ross), who I remember as an outstanding Ariel in The Tempest. Directed by Gareth Machin and produced by Creation's founder, David Parrish, Macbeth runs until September 9.