Lightning flashes and illuminates the witches. As they stare into the fire, they chant an eerie, wordless mantra; the chant begins to echo around the theatre, the audience is filled with apprehension. Smoke rises and flows along the stage and, in the background, the sirens become louder, the sounds of pain and distress become increasingly urgent and terrible.
The chant ends and a witch says "When shall we three meet again?" her voice strikes a discordant note; it is the voice of a street-wise hooker. I look around the audience; every single person is silent and staring at the stage completely transfixed. The flashing images on the screen lessen and eventually cease and the screaming turns into cries and then that too stops. The silence is broken by the witch's speech, "There to meet with Macbeth". A breeze blows across backdrop; rubbish floats, blurred grey-black images flash past, and there are moaning cries on the wind. The witches cry out to their familiars, "Anon anon". The wind gets stronger, the witches stand and raise their arms in the air, "Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air". At that point a pyrotechnic effect gives the illusion of bright blue flames filling the alley, and the theatre if filled with the sound of evil laughter. The blue flames die down and the alley stands empty without as much as a whisper of wind. The lights fade to darkness and the scene ends. .
The line "Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air" suggests that this is going to be a hard play to tell the difference between good and evil. The way things appear may not be the way they really are. Things that seem to be good may turn out to be evil and things that seem to be evil may turn out to be good.
I look across the audience, there is barely a murmur, and they are totally still. They have entered the world of Macbeth. I feel a sense of pride; this is what theatre should be about.