With this Hamlet you can almost reach out and feel his pain – and blush at the lusty passion.

Shakespeare's greatest tragedy is up close and personal in the latest, and most thrilling production yet, from Lancaster's Demi Paradise company.

Their mastery of the historic spaces within the Castle creates promenade productions that lead audiences of just 60 into close encounters of the Bard kind.

The weather on opening night may have ruled out a ghostly visitation to the battlements, but inside the Shire Hall, Crown Court and Hadrian's Tower, and with a slightly-stripped version of the text, they create a performance that works on so many levels.

The same detailing that has gone in to Ruth Caswell's costume work has been stitched into the direction, by Sue McCormick and Chris Hallam.

And while there are limits on the lighting you can put into a working building, designer Mark Alexander manages to paint spectacular shadows – not least some inspired puppetry for the play within a play that will "catch the conscience of a King".

Damien Warren-Smith is a princely pin-up with a swaggering machismo, a man who understands his power if not his emotions. Claire Disley, as Ophelia, unravels before our eyes. But everywhere you look, among a cast of 12 playing 24 parts, there's so much to applaud, particularly the nimble comic touches.

Tickets are few and far between for such intimate performances but it would be worth killing Claudius just for his – before March 15.

David Upton