Showing @ Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 13 May – Sat 4 June

On the face of it David Greig’s post-Macbeth NTS production is an opportunity for the playwright to rekindle the Scottish national landscape after its political struggles and clannish factionalism were mapped out by an English writer. Yet what Greig and director Roxana Silbert manage to do is present a broader satire and comment on the nature of cultural voyeurism.

After the death of Macbeth, Malcolm (Brian Ferguson) who now sits as King of Scotland faces a rushing colonial attack from Northumbrian Siward’s (Jonny Phillips) English army. As the Englishman believes he is bringing unity, peace and harmony to the various factions of tribal Scotland, his flaw is in his sightlessness rather than his intentions, and soon he finds himself enchanted by Queen Gruach’s (Siobhan Redmond) vigorous, fiendish deceptions.

With a traditional medieval look about it, sweeping stone steps supporting a prominent Christian artefact, Greig blends the modern and the old with jokey contemporary idiom and a visible folk-rock band. Though at times slightly overdone and blatant, the music generates a majestic soundtrack which not only motors the action, but echoes the grandeur of some regal, 11th-century dinner hall. With a fairly young cast, there’s a childish playfulness about the English army which not only suggests naïveté but also detachment from the hierarchical structure of an army. It’s these subtler satirical comments from Greig on the nature of foreign ignorance and juvenility which ring out throughout the performance.

And it’s clear Greig isn’t trying to rewrite Shakespeare. From Macduff and Malcolm who appear only as background characters, there’s a necessity to pitching Gruach and Siward against each other as protagonists. His moral flaws in intention juxtapose her flaws in calculation and there’s a dynamism which draw the two together, exquisitely choreographed in the couple’s dialogue. Yet for all Gruach’s deception, her honesty stems from the love of her country, and the belief in monarchical heritage which will grant royal children admission to the throne. As we still face on-going conflict in the Middle East with potential additions in Syria, there’s an imperialist veil of perception which somehow cloaks the English belief in western democracy. There’s no moral right to be claimed when installing governments to countries which differ in culture, and it’s this idea which Siward seems blind to. As Gruach explains, the fighting will only end when the English leave Scotland, and Siward’s desire to unite the factions of Scottish clans highlights a certain voyeurism in British culture, created out of the seemingly inexorable rightist media coverage of foreign nations. What’s left is an exposed, stripped image of Scotland in which self-governance and determination are not only possible, they are natural.