Othello, here, is not what it is. Transposing Shakespeare’s lofty tragic masterpiece into the grotty interior of a northern pub invariably entails a radical departure from conservative ideas of The Bard; Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett’s reimagining departs from Venice and instead brings us to the present-day dressed down detritus of a West Yorkshire where clandestine games are brutally played out amongst pool tables and fruit machines. Sticklers for traditional Shakespearian performance will not get out unscathed.

But this is what makes this production interesting – it is dangerous and wonderfully caustic. The decadent hyperbole is delivered with a brashness that breathes a startling and insolent fecundity into the familiar – a dirty and vicious undercurrent seethes in every exchange. Indeed, the whole aesthetic may come as a jarring shock to some: I had never before considered the dingy drama of a night out in Leeds to be a suitable vehicle for revered Othello, but such an unlikely form is executed masterfully. The bustling periphery of the stage sets the scene for shagging in pub toilets and scrapping in the streets – perturbing at first – but effectively hammering home the real baseness in the lust and violence that’s coursed through the veins of the play since 1604. A tracksuit-clad cast of miscreants bring the carnage to life, an ensemble of the kind of scrotes that you would cross the road to avoid, including a far-from-angelic Desdemona and an infinitely punchable Iago. Strong performances all round and inspired choreography result in a highly watchable spectacle of malice and threat, punctuated with moments of real humour and tenderness.

A case may definitely be made to cut down some of the lengthier bursts of electronic music in favour of restoring some more of the original script (simply because the handling is so interesting). I also felt that the dance-heavy sequences of the early scenes that are completely lacking towards the end could, perhaps, have been more evenly distributed throughout – this would be a more cohesive overall experience.

Ultimately, though, this really is an adrenaline-filled marvel of modern theatre which jump-starts the cryogenically preserved dark heart of Othello into beating anew in this praiseworthy adaptation.