THIS must be the only production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play where the audience are warned beforehand not to visit the toilet during the performance because there are men with big swords running around the woods near the portable loos.

Charlotte Bennett’s staging also invites some of the audience to the feast and to sit at the long table in Dunsinane Palace’s great hall as MacBeth entertains at a banquet.

It’s not a peaceful meal as the ghost of Banquo, dripping blood and looking like he’s escaped from a zombie movie, turns up – although, admittedly, he can only be seen by the increasingly disturbed MacBeth (and the audience, of course).

In its annual – this is the seventh – outdoor show in the grounds and woods at Ripley Castle, near Ripon, Sprite Productions likes to ring the changes. So if you go down to the woods today, or any other night until Sunday, you’re sure of a big surprise.

Choosing to stage one of Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies, MacBeth makes a welcome change to the lightheartedness of the usual outdoor plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream or last year’s As You Like It. The weather may not have played along, providing bright sunshine rather than stormy skies, but this production is fast-paced, well-spoken and, after a slightly hesitant start, grips as the murderous machinations of the MacBeths are played out in their scheme to secure the throne.

Spurred on by hubble, bubble, toil and trouble witches (Eiry Hughes, Laura aCubitt, Catherine Pugh), the couple kill men, women and even children who stand in their way.

Matt Cross’s MacBeth at least appears to have a conscience, although that gets put aside in his increasingly powerful quest to seize the throne. As well as thoughtfully putting over some of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches, Cross is no mean fighter, as his final confrontation with an angry MacDuff demonstrates.

The behaviour of Laura Rees as his Lady MacBeth would make a March hare seem sane.

In anything, her lust for the crown is even stronger than that of her other half.

A nice touch is having the witches – who first materialise as living statues on the lawns of Ripley Castle – lead the audience into the woods in this promenade production.

􀁧 Performances tonight, Wed, Fri and Saturday 7.30pm.

Wednesday and Saturday matinee 2pm. Late show Thurs 9pm. Sun 4pm. Bookings and information 01423-770632.