IoS Reader Offer: Free Tickets for 'Stomp'

LUKE Cresswell and Steve McNicholas have a peculiar way of acclimatising to new places - by sifting through the nearest dump in search of props for their show. The co-founders of Yes/No People have seen a few cities since Stomp burst onstage at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival - on sell-out tours to Europe, America, Australia and Japan. Now London's rubbish tips are in their sights: next week a relaunched Stomp (above) arrives at the Royal Festival Hall.

Urban waste is integral to Yes/No People's performances: their sets are made entirely from detritus. Into this apocalyptic trash-heap world mooches a gang of adolescent slackers who embark on a performance of high-voltage virtuosity. This is theatre without words, dance without music, but what Yes/No People do have in abundance is rhythm. The purpose of the scattered debris becomes clear as one random noise, tapped out with a dust-bin lid, is followed by another - and the air fills with syncopation.

Stomp returns with its key influences intact: Japanese kodo drumming, South African gumboot dancing, Trinidad steel drumming, and British music hall and street theatre. Cresswell and McNicholas explain its success quite simply: "We all want to hit something sometimes."

Stomp runs from Tues 12-Sun 17 Sept; tickets cost pounds 10-20, but the first 10 IoS readers who ring the box office after 10am today will receive a free pair of tickets for the opening night. (RFH, SE1, 0171 960 4242.)