After applause had died down at the end of Complicite’s show, Disappearing Number, last night, the director, Simon McBurney, made a short speech explaining that the show had been booked into the festival despite his advice that it wouldn’t be ready. Indeed it wasn’t ready: beautiful plants in a jungle of ideas in need of a machete. Internal Festival gossip about Complicite’s continuing rehearsal process has put our anxiety about not being totally slick on Tuesday into some kind of perspective.

James