Macbeth at the Barbican review: Christopher Eccleston plays the Scottish traitor in this horror-inspired version by the RSC

Macbeth lives and dies on its witches. “When shall we three meet again?” squeaks the first, a young girl in a red dress and white tights, ribbons in her hair.

Two identically dressed girls answer, then run energetically off the stage, giggling shrilly. These escapees from The Shining weave in and out of this otherwise sober production of Macbeth, their brightness and energy giving them a supernatural quality in an otherwise drab world.

This touring RSC version by Polly Findlay, the young director behind last year’s acclaimed National Theatre musical Beginning, has none of the dirt or savagery of the NT’s recent production of this play. It’s bleak in the mundane sense, looking as though it’s set in a rundown working men’s club.

This impression is only confirmed by Christopher Eccleston, who plays the Scottish ursurper using his native Yorkshire twang. Like many modern Macbeths, his is an upstanding soldier in khaki slacks and combat boots, stomping around the stage and puffing like an agitated rhino.

His Lady, Niamh Cusack, wears her betrayal enthusiastically, saying ‘what’s done is done’ in a reassuring manner as opposed to a cold decisive one, nudging not ordering her Thane towards his fate. Destiny hangs over the stage in the form of a digital clock, ticking down to the moment of reckoning and the full truth of the witches’ prophecy.

From The Haunting to Halloween, there’s plenty of symbolism here for horror movie fans to enjoy, too, including thunderclaps and jump scares. Often played as a straighforward psychological thriller, this Macbeth is full-blown horror, with sloshes of blood and a screeching score to match. It works far better as a way of engaging a modern audience than upping the bawdy comedy elements, a lazy trap that many Shakespeare productions fall into.

This Macbeth is subtle yet assured, with a spooky aesthetic that’s perfect for the dark nights ahead.