The smell is ripe and earthy. The floor of the huge disused glass house is covered with mulch. A man rakes to the sound of birds, the strange calls suggesting something almost prehistoric. Then suddenly from out of the loam, in a moment of Carrie-like horror, a hand appears from under the surface. Then another and another. Fully dressed, the performers emerge from the mulch; an hour later they will have returned there. We are but a little dust.
It is a brilliant opening to Small Wonder's site-specific performance in which the battle between man and nature, and man and his own nature, is played out with some help from pyrotechnic experts the World Famous, who make it snow fire and shudder stars. The wild and the tame, the civilised and the untrammelled do war as the elements rage. Adam and Eve taste the apple and the Garden of Eden is casually despoiled. Towards the end it feels as if the whole world is ablaze.
This is, as promised, a remarkable "adventure for the senses", but you do wish that it offered a little more food for the brain, and relied less on special effects and more on the power of performance itself. One of the best sections is a lyrical, hoppy dance as the sun comes out, which effortlessly suggests generations of workers toiling in the fields. The show needs much more of this human element and fewer show-off moments.
An abundance of fireworks and the ability to make it rain indoors certainly ensure a wow factor, but after a while it feels as if the show is lumbering from one set-piece to another, and has sacrificed emotional impact to its technical achievements. The greatest irony is that on this wild night nature itself rather outdid the special effects, as the branches of the trees swaying overhead seemed to be clawing against the glass house trying to get in.
· Until October 29. Box office: 01273 685861.
