Oliver Jones

If thorny issues of free will versus devilish equivocation or the convolutions of the multiple Shakespearean narratives begin to bamboozle the kids, Cuthbertson and Frampton can be relied upon to supply some supremely silly stage business to quell the fidgets. We help the witches to conjure their sleep and laughter charms; two self-regarding actors from the ghost department, dressed in fright wigs and all-white doublet-and-hose, flamboyantly teach us their scare tactics. Illusion designer John Bulleid ensures that candles mysteriously extinguish and players vanish into thin air, and a Shadow (Frampton again, this time a Scarlet Pimpernel figure with an outrageous French accent) demonstrates how to suspend a dagger in mid-air. Descriptions of the murders of Banquo and, in particular, of Macduff’s family, sit uneasily within the tomfoolery. Otherwise, this show holds its young sorcerers’ apprentices spellbound.