Playing the tables

This clever conceit from Polish company Karbido had audiences cooing with surprised delight at the Edinburgh Fringe earlier this year. You can see why.

The stage is empty save for a table and chairs. Four men dressed in severe black enter, sit down and look as though they're about to play cards. Instead, they start to stroke, pluck and slap the table, with the magical result that highly sophisticated, percussive music emerges from bits of ordinary domestic furniture.

Of course, the table isn't so ordinary after all. It's been fitted with a lot of electronic wizardry - not to mention strings and a fretboard - to produce a range of sounds not unlike a modern synthesizer.

But that hardly detracts from the skill of the performers, who spend the next 50 minutes fetishistically coaxing an impressive array of musical moods from it, from ambient folksiness to full-on industrial clamour. Their rendition of The Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog appears as you've never heard it before. The downside is the size of the relatively cavernous Tricycle. It is hardly the ideal venue for such an intimate show. And most of the dramatic interest is provided by small gestures made between the performers.

Even with spectators seated on the stage, it's hard to follow that kind of minute interplay in this setting.

Until Nov 14, Tricycle Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road NW6, Tue to Fri 7.45pm, Sat and Sun mats 4pm, £9.50 to £18, £7.50 concs. Tel: 020 7328 1000.

The Table
Tricycle
269 Kilburn High Rd NW6