Rough Magic review – zany riff on Macbeth bewitches young audience

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
Gleefully batty caper finds one of the weird sisters in hot cauldron water after making reckless promises of a very bright future to a passing thane

‘What happens in Macbeth?” I ask my 10-year-old daughter Hilda. “Macbeth wants to be king and he kills some dudes,” she replies. “And there’s some witches.” What, then, might those weird sisters get up to when all the hurly-burly of the play is done? The answer comes from the team behind Midsummer Mechanicals, a sort of sequel to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, who are back with a batty brew of sketches, a somewhat tangled plot and more Bard in-jokes than you could shake Prospero’s staff at.

The concept will appeal just as much to fans of Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch. Rosemarie Akwafo is engaging as the Mildred Hubble-esque Nona, a junior witch who has blotted her spell book with a series of blunders including mislaying essential potion ingredients and what is repeatedly referred to as “the Macbeth incident”. It becomes clear she is Shakespeare’s third witch who – much to the other two’s disapproval – told the thane that he “shalt be king” and effectively sparked a bloodbath.

At Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, until 24 August