"Macbeth (Abridged)" by William Shakespeare.

Nottingham Shakespeare Company.

Nonsuch Studios, Nottingham.

Surely there can't be anyone who does not know this classic story? Well, just in case there isn't, here's a quick summary.

A Scottish General by the name of Macbeth receives the equivalent of a horoscope prediction, but in person by three witches, that he was to become the next King of Scotland. Now, Macbeth was an ambitious young General and obviously couldn't wait for the current King to pop his clogs, so he decided that, with the backing of his wife, he would help speed up the prophecy of the three witches, and murdered King Duncan, taking the throne for himself. What seemed a good idea at the time slowly started to create paranoia and guilt in the new King. What a marvellous piece of theatre to perform on our new King's Coronation Day! Anyway, the bloodshed does not end there........

Macbeth is played by Warren Saunders, who captures the crazed killer look in his eyes as well as conveying terror of seeing ghosts over dinner. There's also a lot of passion shown between Macbeth and his wife which some versions of this particular play, you don't get to see.

Lady Macbeth is played by Michelle Louise-Wright. Michelle performs part of the time in a wheelchair, or aided with a stick. This is no barrier to Michelle and, as the play continues you don't even notice the aids because Michelle is quite hypnotic, especially in the scene where Lady Macbeth is haunted by the spots of blood on her hands in the "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" speech.

Banquo is played by James Kaye, and like all the other actors in this abridged version, races around the place, which shows the urgency of the story. You can tell the love these actors have of Shakespeare by the ease that they deliver and portray.

David Watts plays Macduff in another show of perfect characterisation. David's physical appearance is also perfect for Macduff. It also works wonderfully for one of his other roles in the play as one of the "weird sisters". He is snake like in his portrayal of one of the three witches, bringing a certain uneasy feeling to the performance space at Nonsuch.

Ross is played by Alastair Fiori-mcphee, who also doubles his role as one of the other sisters, equally as unnerving as David's and Jonathan's bewitching performance.

Jonathan Mansfield plays Malcolm and the third weird sister, and as everyone who knows the story, knows that Malcolm gets to deliver the final heroic speech. You almost feel like shouting "hurrah!" after this speech, but I managed to keep my "hurrahs" internally.

The full version of this wonderfully tragic tale normally lasts about three hours but when this company says it's an abridged version, they really mean it as the show only lasts an hour, but all the action and excitement is shoe-horned into this time space, as well as keeping to the Bard's text.

The performance may be classed as a short one but you will not feel short-changed by any stretch of the imagination because all of the main speeches and action have been condensed beautifully.

There is no set to speak of, again meaning that there is no waiting for scene changes. The actors enter from various entry points, keeping the audience on their toes and as one scene and speech closes, the next scene starts immediately, always maintaining you have something to look at either in the performance area or on the steps through the audience or from the entrance of the space.

This obviously shows that these actors have to be on their toes all the while as there are scenes which follow on which include some of the actors from the previous scene, making for a very speedy costume change.

"Macbeth" is my favourite of Shakespeare's tragedies, and even in this abridged form I love the story, the gore, the characters and the speeches. Who, if you didn't know, would have guessed that Shakespeare, all those years ago would have written in a scene about brewer's droop, and in this one, the absorption of cloths? Can't remember that scene?

A massive "well done" to all involved in this alternative celebrations for the King. The energy and passion was well received by everyone at this performance.

There are three performances, along with workshops, at Nonsuch Studios today, Saturday 6 May. I attended the early afternoon performance, with a final show commencing at 15.45.