Living near Hull may not sound too glamorous (Hull has something of a bad rep in the UK) but it has its advantages. Chief among which are the two excellent theatres - Hull Truck and Hull New Theatre. Hull Truck has the history and the reputation - John Godber is artistic director, and its productions often tour the country - and it was to Hull Truck that we went tonight for a Friday 13th performance of Macbeth.
I was really impressed. I was concerned to begin with as it was a modern-dress production, and the last Shakespeare play I saw in modern dress missed the mark in my view (Lear at the Sheffield Crucible). They either keep the original dialogue, in which case it seems anachronistic, or they update it, in which case it's just not Shakespeare. But Hull Truck managed to keep it neat and other-worldly without conveying a specific era, so it tied in nicely.
Impressively, the minimalist effects included scented smoke that was evocative of musty Highland castles, the sound was fantastic, and - most importantly - the whole thing was acted impeccably (it strikes me that many actors find it hard to deliver Shakespeare's lines convincingly as they're too busy focusing on how it sounds, rather than what it means).

And it's a brave theatre that puts on the famously cursed play on Friday 13th...