With the bin men refusing to work for two days last week, waste was the hot topic across Brighton and Hove.

While probably not too impressed at the sight of bin bags piling high outside homes, Brighton Festival organisers will be delighted at how in touch they appeared in booking Bone Yard Tales.

The setting for the open-air show, in Trafalgar Street arches, near Brighton Station, was apt - a forgotten waste land which many people pass but very few people enter, never mind enjoy.

The story followed the tale of Rag and Bone, two leaders of a free world which turned waste into useful day-to-day objects.

The story in itself was simple, aimed at the scores of children in the audience. With three gigantic movable steel structures fashioned out of everything from scaffolding, bath tubs and bed frames, the set design was imaginative and evolving.

The accompaniment, from a baritone sax-wielding creature known as Blow, was also fitting to the modern underground style of the piece.

But the rest of the audio was not quite perfect and the middle section of the 45-minute performance dragged as its aim was unclear.

However, helped by the finale of a battle seen with a mythical beast, the tale certainly captured the imagination of the younger members of the audience. The only complaint was that for the more mature in the crowd, it lacked to wow factor that other large-scale free public performances have offered the city in years gone by.