The orchestra is arriving for rehearsal. They carry their instruments with them, and you wait for them to unpack. But they never do. Instead they start playing the instrument cases themselves, running their fingers up and down them like nails against a blackboard. Instead of wincing, you smile.
There is an awful lot to smile about in this brand new show from the creators of the worldwide success Stomp, which, 15 years ago, hit upon the natty idea of harnessing the percussive rhythms of household objects. They have been milking it ever since, sometimes looking a little tired in the process.
Stomp is like the percussion section of an orchestra brought to wild, whacky life; this world premiere - commissioned by the Brighton festival to celebrate its 40th anniversary - offers an entire orchestra. The second half is a giddy symphony of traffic-cone trumpets and violin saws that wail with an eerie intensity. In another section, aerialists swing through the air on pipes like human hammers knocking against bells. It is exhilarating and strangely beautiful.
This is a novelty act, but one that is unpretentious, infectious and great fun. When the cast realise alternative musical uses for the dustpan and brush or the vacuum cleaner, they seem amazed by their own ingenuity. Directors Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas recognise that it must be a visual experience as well as an aural one, and so there are duels at dawn with saws, and pipes used like staves in some exotic martial art.
There are times when it seems no more than a lot of old hippies having a jam, and I could certainly have done without the space hoppers. It is also clear that while the company has investigated the musical possibilities of found sound, the found theatrical possibilities remain largely unexplored. The show is like a series of dazzling circus turns: it makes you giggle and gasp, but it doesn't make you think or feel in the way a fully fledged piece of theatre would, or even a fully fledged symphony. With more ambition - and perhaps even some fragile threads of narrative - this could be something to really make a noise about.
