The first thing you'll notice about "Macbeth" at the University of Hawai'i is that the leading couple speaks Spanish. Spanish? Si!

Director Paul Mitri sets the classic "Scottish play" of vaulting ambition in a post-apocalyptic "melting pot" of cultures where characters "represent their groups through language and manners." This includes Macduff and family, who speak Russian, and a Japanese-speaking clan that includes Banquo and King Duncan. Minor roles are salted with Arabic and Gaelic.

Obviously, somebody's mother failed to admonish him against playing with his Shakespeare.

Of course, everybody speaks Elizabethan English as well, which often emerges as a foreign tongue in college productions anyway, so why not experiment a little? The result is something like Dick Cavett's recent observation of Sarah Palin — that she "seems to have no first language."

So be prepared for Macbeth's familiar speech upon hearing of his wife's suicide to come out, "Tomorrow and tomorrow, and manana."

You'll also note that he's simultaneously strangling, with one hand, the unfortunate messenger who brought him the bad news. This, along with an especially brutal stabbing of Lady Macduff and plenty of dramatic fight choreography, adds to the post-"Apocalypto" tone.

The approach is also a big green light to the design crew to accelerate their imaginations.

Chesley Cannon creates a stage set of ramps and platforms poised over a toxic waste dump that glows in the dark, with an open-hatched well that belches out fumes and — occasionally — the three witches. The raised playing areas also offer a neat solution to disposing of bodies produced during the battle scenes — they simply roll off into the void below.

Sandra Finney's costumes have a "Road Warrior" look with subtle international touches. Make-up slathers on plenty of clown white for the Witches and ghoulish green for the walking dead that represent the growing number of ghosts.

Sound designer Sean Sanford uses Halloween spook house effects and projections include a giant eyeball and a silhouette parade of future kings.

Shakespeare productions have survived, and even benefited from, production concepts more bizarre than this one. But you don't have to be a card-carrying member of the English-Speaking Union to come back to the essential question asked of any revival: "Does it do justice to the language?" Ultimately, the UH effort must set aside the Mel Gibson concept, the language mixture, and the foreign accents, and be able to stand on its ability to "speak the speech."

In Mitri's concept, some speeches are totally lost. We often yearn for subtitles or give up on the language entirely and follow the familiar action from its pantomime alone. But there are performances worth noting.

K.C. Odell and Michelle Hurtubise do serviceable work as the unhappy central couple. Understandably young for the roles and inexperienced in acting Shakespeare, they are both consistent and in tune with the basic character drives of Macbeth and his Lady. Their scenes together are the best spoken expression in the production.

Bradley J. Larson also does well as Macduff, building a sympathetic character that stands out among the vivid images that surround him.

While this is not a traditional "Macbeth," it is one with plenty of spirit and imagination.