Rendering Shakespeare's words superfluous

Polish company Biuro Podrozy's radical outdoor reworking of Macbeth ditches all but a handful of lines of Shakespeare's text, replacing them with an exhilarating display of physical theatre.

Director Pawel Szkotak immediately plunges the audience into a war-torn world where King Duncan is a remorseless tyrant who shoots his own men for incompetence. Then it's non-stop action as Macbeth's bloody rise and fall is told through a thrilling mixture of stilt walking, pyrotechnics and motorbikes.

But there's substance as well as style. Szkotak has a gift for creating potent symbols and metaphors: felled tree trunks represent Macbeth's victims and return as Birnam Wood; Lady Macbeth's murderous influence is represented by a woman gobbling an apple and tempting her lover with it.

Indeed, the strength of Szkotak's visual poetry almost renders Shakespeare's words superfluous.

Until Aug 27 (not Fri), Old College Quad, 10pm, £8 and £11.

Macbeth: Who Is That Bloodied Man?
Old College Quad, Edinburgh Fringe