As an enthralled audience (as they must have been) savoured Jonathan Slinger’s sensational performance as Macbeth in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, a few yards away in the Swan a full house was gripped by the continuation of the story as it is told in Dunsinane. This fine new play, premiered to great acclaim by the RSC in Hampstead last year, is being revived, with many of the same actors and director Roxana Silbert, by the National Theatre of Scotland. It can be seen till July 2.

David Greig’s play offers a more accurate picture of Scottish history than Macbeth, which ends, it will be remembered, with the crowning of Malcolm — installed to power with the help of his English allies — and the suggestion that all will now be sweetness and light north of the border. Not so, alas. Big surprises revealed by Malcolm (Brian Ferguson) during witty exchanges with the English commander Siward (Jonny Phillips) are that Lady Macbeth has survived — and has a son from an earlier marriage who is set to supply the rallying point for forces opposed to the new regime.

Taking upon himself the role of peacekeeper, Siward disregards the advice of Macduff (Phil McKee) to “kill the Queen. Put her head on a stick . . . End it” and tries other methods to get the widow ‘on side’. These include (perhaps not the wisest of moves) a sexual fling with the sensual Gruach, as she’s called (Siobhan Redmond, pictured with Jonny Phillips).

The plot has obvious parallels with the situation of the British ‘peacekeeping’ forces of today. The ‘troops home’ cry is supplied by the windy, mercenary and clear-sighted officer, Egham (Alex Mann) who observes: “They’re fighting us because we’re here . . . They’re fighting us partly because we are stopping them from fighting each other.”

He is one of the number of characters who bring a welcome measure of fun to what would otherwise be a bloody, shocking drama. Others are the engaging boy soldier and narrator — by means of letters home to his mother — played by Tom Gill, and various examples of that always sympathetic character, the horny, wise-cracking, stoic English serving man.

Tickets: 0844 8001110 (www.rsc.org.uk).