Large-scale, outdoor performances are a lot like parties: eagerly anticipated but often disappointing. The next day it is frequently difficult to remember exactly what happened and why.
British companies are getting better at this sort of thing, creating productions such as Improbable's Sticky that have not only an epic sweep and spectacle on a grand scale but also meaning.
But that cannot really be said for IOU's Tattoo. There is just enough here to justify spending your Friday night in a car park, but only if the car park is adjacent to your home.
There is a distinct lack of transformation - of the space or the audience, despite attempts to manipulate the environment. An ambient throb drifts across the open car park and the air is sticky with a honey-like smell.
Then from out of the darkness emerges a strange white machine that edges into the crowd. Human-sized bees buzz about, inventively adorned with bird cages, sieves and yellow dusters. Then comes a glass house on wheels, accompanied by a procession of gas-masked figures.
But nothing happens. Gangs of small boys get bored and start to worry the bees, and the hive construction occasionally spews out bubbles.
As the action takes place in the audience rather than in front of it, I keep wondering whether something more interesting was happening in another part of the car park. Finally, after 45 minutes, the audience now diminished as people drifted away, the machine spews out some outsize balls that bounce away on the wind.
And that is that. I am reminded that, when it comes to outdoor theatre, we are satisfied by very little: in this case standing in a car park watching an adult run around dressed as a bee. If it wasn't for the fact that Tattoo is free, you'd feel stung.
· At Falkirk on Saturday and Sunday (0141 552 7136), then touring. Details: 01422 369217.
