Dunsinane

There are thousands of words to be written about how thrillingly timely this remount has proved to be, and what David Greig’s blistering script has to say about Iraq and Afghanistan, Westminster and West Lothian, but the first thing that needs saying is that Dunsinane is brilliantly funny.

Not wry-smile-and-polite-titter funny, but properly LOL, great-night-out funny. The National Theatre of Scotland could safely be offering a money-back guarantee for anyone whose ribs remain untickled.

Greig has been a leading light in Scottish theatre for a long time now, but this work – the plot of which picks up where Macbeth left off and focuses on the power struggle between the dead king’s still-alive widow Gruach and the English invaders – is exceptional even by his standards.

It’s easy to see why the NTS has brought the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2010 production over the border. Every element strikes the right note, from sandstone set and gorgeous, muddy costumes to live music that perfectly soundtracks the proceedings without ever intruding.

The cast are uniformly fantastic, from the boy soldiers having an awfully big adventure to the handmaids lamenting in perfect harmony. Among the leads, the ever-excellent Brian Ferguson is the stand-out as the unsuitable king Malcolm, repeatedly earning gales of laughter with no more than an “um…”

The visual feast is matched by the richness of Greig’s bilingual poetry, as he unwinds his account of an English general’s bewitching by Lady Macbeth, enigmatically played by Siobhan Redmond. The central dynamic has much in common with the Traverse’s intoxicating Edinburgh International Festival offering The Last Witch, but in tone it’s somewhere between Monty Python and Howard Barker, and Roxana Silbert’s production brings to mind Kenny Ireland’s legendary Victory on the same stage.

All this, plus live archery and probably the most handsome cast Scotland will see this year. A treat from start to finish.