"Savage" was one leading playwright's verdict on Latitude's theatre tent, which this year has expanded to meet demand. Thankfully, the audience was forgiving, because few have given much thought to what might go in there. Sit there long enough and you risk suffocation by words and a baffling lack of imagination. Given an instant turnaround and a bare space, British theatre's solution is to talk the audience into submission.
The Lyric tries harder than most and acquits itself honourably with Simon Stephens and Tashan Cushnie's Supernova, which transforms the space into a seedy pub for a piece that, with its washed-up rock star and wannabe, creates a debate about musical legacies to twang the Latitude guitar. The Bush, meanwhile, has resorted to a relentless barrage of sex and poo jokes for Suddenlossofdignity.com.
There is far more to tantalise beyond the tent, where fragility is celebrated in the delicate participatory installations in Pandora's Playground, which include Every Brilliant Thing, a list of things that make life worth living. Tangled Feet's Home appears like a travelling sideshow and disappears into the night again, and in the woods Rachel Rose Reid's retelling of Persephone conjures skulls and pomegranates. Such fleeting moments offer a glimpse of magic.
