The new production of Macbeth by the Watermill Theatre’s resident Ensemble company, which follows earlier musical takes on Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and the Dream, will delight and dismay, I guess, in almost equal measure.

It all depends on one’s attitude to innovation. Gender-blind casting is hardly unusual these days; it’s almost de rigueur in fact, though women as Banquo (Lillie Flynn) and Malcolm (Victoria Blunt) will still surprise some.

So perhaps will the Macbeths’ boozy porter turned into a female receptionist (Eva Feiler) in bell-hop uniform at their castle-cum-hotel – presumably a sleazy one since House of the Rising Sun is sung as the action shifts there.

Yes, these songs, energetically performed by the instrument-toting actors, will raise eyebrows too, not least for the comic element they sometimes introduce, presumably as the director Paul Hart intends.

This is seen especially in Duncan’s (Max Runham) retiring to bed as he belts out Roy Orbison’s In Dreams and being butchered to the pounding strains of Alt J’s Bloodflood.

The gleeful relish brought to the task by Billy Postlethwaite’s Macbeth – indeed to his devilries in general – contributes, too, to the element of black comedy; likewise weird sisters glitteringly garbed as if in a girl singing group.

All comes over, though, as thoroughly watchable, gripping the audience at the performance I attended, well populated by junior theatregoers.

The significant sexual rapport between Postlethwaite’s Macbeth and his dreadful lady, the excellent Emma McDonald, demands attention, as it should, and her sleep-walking scene is riveting.

This is, in summary, a powerful, pacy production. Go see.

Until March 30. Box office: 01635 46044, watermill.org.uk

CHRISTOPHER GRAY 4/5