The exquisite terror within

There may have been livelier Macbeths than the portly Simon Russell Beale (reunited here with his Hamlet director, John Caird) but there have been few who have dwelt on each word in the play so ruminatively or so exquisitely.

From the start, Russell Beale cuts a solitary figure, immersed deep within an unusually introspective consciousness, to the extent that Caird's long, slow and preternatural-feeling production constantly implies a man caught desperately on the threshold between the living and the dead.

The small stage at the Almeida suits this play. There is no set - instead, smoke and sound are the main design features. The weird sisters appear around a circle of smoke while the air is thick with animal cries caught on the wind. Children are a recurring theme: they appear as ambassadors for the witches; their crying haunts

Macbeth; while Macbeth himself has never been more aware of his own lack of children, brilliantly suggesting there's a connection between this absence and his murderous hunger.

Russell Beale's performance is tremendous. Tortured by self-loathing and mortal terror, yet also capable of flashes of mordant humour, he gradually curdles into a fat, nihilistic megalomaniac, lethally self-aware.

Emma Fielding's intelligent Lady Macbeth intriguingly travels towards a state of childhood as she descends into madness, while the rest of the cast give decent support, with Paul Higgins's Macduff expressing the humanity that lies at the heart of this beautifully thought-out production.

Until Mar 5, Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street N1, Mon to Sat 7.30pm, Sat mats 3pm, £6 to £27.50 (returns only). Tel: 020 7359 4404. www.almeida.co.uk Tube: Angel/Highbury & Islington

Macbeth