Opera is more usually associated with ostentation and privilege than splendid experimental theatre. Yet Cold Fusion by IOU Theatre is both opera and splendid experimental theatre. The show concerns itself with the moment before the Big Bang. With characteristic flair and invention, IOU tell a once-upon-a-time tale from before time began. The gods, sung and realised by Amanda Hadingue and Jessica Loeb, are seen pondering their plight. Is there any point being gods if there is no one to glorify you? And yet, even before the creation of the universe, the gods weary of the thought of the pain in the neck that 'homo sapiens' can be.

Tim Moss is our representative, both as an audience and as a species, summarising and reporting the gods' philosophical to-ing and fro-ing. Perhaps to understand his mere mortal status, Tim's character talks more than he sings, though his lines are in as much the same Edward Lear meets Albert Einstein vein as the lyrics of the gods. Maybe we are not so lowly after all. Indeed the gods in this show were as clumsy in their way as any person and the sole human being was as capable of insight and wisdom as these gods. A profoundly optimistic thought.