IT is curtain up in reverse. You sit down comfortably in a beach hut, look out at the sea views and then find yourself in darkness as the red velvet curtains in front of you are closed.

At first, sounds of sea and rollerblades dominate and it's hard to concentrate on the audio play murmuring in your ear.

But when you hear an estate agent's voice describing the hut, you get drawn in.

It's "compact, cosy and bijou", he says, and there are hooks to hang your hammocks on when you want to go to bed.

The sea views are fantastic and you can always build an extension - but only up or down and then you must beware of damp.

At times the Radio Four story about a couple forced by spiralling house prices to set up home in a beach hut verges on farce but this takes little away from the magic of the experience.

By the time the curtains are opened again it's a nasty shock to remember there is a real world out there.

This play in a beach hut is an unexpected, imaginative and one-off treasure of an experience, which makes the Brighton Festival just as much as any headlining, big-name show.

  • Runs every 15 minutes, from noon to 8pm, until Sunday, May 27. Free, call 01273 709709