They're back: the Catalan company, La Cubana, who eight years ago galvanised the festival with Blinded by Love, a show that mixed film and live action. And even if their new production is less technically dazzling, it combines anarchic fun with theatrical deconstruction as if Hellzapoppin had been rewritten by Pirandello.
Some shows benefit from a late arrival. Here it is vital to turn up at least half an hour early, when you find a kitsch variety show, ostensibly staged by a Gibraltarian touring company, in full, ghastly progress. It is certainly nothing if not international: Austria is symbolised by lederhosen and dirndls; gay Paree by boaters and baguettes; and Scotland, somewhat libellously, by kilted, epicene figures singing "Donald, where's your troosers?"
To anyone who still remembers the pseudo-cosmopolitan tat of variety and revue, all this has the same effect as a Proustian madeleine. But something is clearly amiss when, with a swirl of marabou feathers, the company sing a rousing finale ("It's a joy to see you") 15 minutes after the advertised starting time. Apologies are offered for the festival's cock-up, a desperate company manager wrings his hands and we, the audience, are left to watch and assist in the company's get-out as they pack up and depart for Plymouth.
Even though the actors ceaselessly bitch about each other, the show is a weird tribute to the rigours of touring life. I also take it to be, like Michael Frayn's Look Look, a satirical comment on audiences: deprived of our expected entertainment, we get to fold curtains, shift costumes and even, to the delight of the performers, consume jam sandwiches. Having broken down the actor-audience relationship, the show exposes our gullibility. But, hilarious and unpredictable as Jordi Milan's excellently performed production is, I wish it had taken the ultimate anarchic step. At one point, the actors merrily depart crying "you stay as long as you like". In fact, it's a false ending - a pity, because I longed to see what an audience, having been titillated for 90 minutes, would get up to on its own.
· Until September 3. Box office: 0131-473 2000.
