FORBIDDING granite castle walls loom over the stage, electric sparks zip around iron-railed stairwells and from sulphurous pools smoke spills spookily.

In the eerie gloom, haunting music plays as three gauze-cowled witches appoint to meet two victorious generals returning from battle.

The spine-tingling line heavy with foreboding: "A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come..."

A massive riveted gate screeches rustily aside and Macbeth and Banquo stand bathed in light before swaggering onto the desolate, atmospheric set, a broken downspout spattering stormwater on their heads.

The three witches, a wonderfully unhinged trio of bag-lady badness, foretell that although Macbeth will become king, it is Banquo’s descendents who will inherit the Scottish throne.

Honourable Banquo (played by Ken Bradshaw) is dismissive, but the supernatural lure enthrals Macbeth against his better nature, sowing the poisonous seed that will turn him from war hero to tyrant.

Thus events are set in motion, fuelled by a cruelly misleading prophesy.

Jemma Redgrave withdrew from this production for personal reasons three short weeks before its opening, and the demanding role of Lady Macbeth was instead played by Julia Ford.

Her slight, tremulous figure is in stark contrast to David Morrisey‘s muscularly combatative Macbeth.

Morrisey conveys the complex character with great skill, the rapid switching of his moods a visible indicator of warped ambitions driving him towards his blood-stained destiny.

Yet it is his wife's steely will which compels him to fulfil a murderous lust for power.

They have no living children, and she torments him with jibes to his manhood when his resolve falters.

They agonize over killing the benign King Duncan (played by Richard Bremmer) and then mentally unravel.

Macbeth bitterly embraces his destiny and damnation by embarking on a reign of terror, while Lady Macbeth’s shuddering sighs are chilling as she attempts to wash the blood of innocents from her hands and conscience in her sleepwalking nightmares.

There is a comically characterful interlude between the death of Duncan and its discovery, and the audience will indeed gratefully remember the hungover porter (again played by Richard Bremmer).

The pivotal intrigues of the rebellion against Macbeth are somewhat lost in frenetic speech and swirling greatcoats, until we see the bluff Macduff (Matthew Flynn) digesting the news that his family are slain in heartrending shock and disbelief.

The brutal onstage murder of Macduff's wife and child provoked gasps of horror from the audience.

Ironically it is the hitherto almost fey and indecisive Malcolm (played by Mark Arends ) who encourages him to man-up and they march to wrest power from Macbeth.

Believing he cannot be killed by "any man born of a woman" (and therefore not at all) Macbeth rashly engages Macduff in a well choreographed swordfight, only to be betrayed by the last of the witches’ duplicitous prophecies.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth carries with it a burden of audience expectation.

This production, the last before the Everyman closes for a massive and much-needed makeover, is enthralling almost throughout its three-hour running time.

Yes, there were moments when the Bard's verse became lost and it seemed to flag so reducing the tragedy's visceral impact, but Gemma Bodinetz's chilling production is still a memorable experience.

Macbeth runs at Liverpool Everyman until June 11.

For tickets and further information visit www.everymanplayhouse.com