It has a memorable cameo in the opening credits to Blackadder IV, in which Baldrick runs to the front of the army's marching band to hit the theme tune's final note.

But never has anyone taken the humble triangle so seriously as to write a piece of music exclusively for it - then put that piece of music on the stage, replete with dramatic lighting, West End choreography and a heavy-duty smoke machine.

"What I wanted to do with Noise Ensemble was take percussion instruments from the back of the orchestra and put them right at the front," says Ethan Lewis Maltby. "There are some amazing players and they deserve a chance to shine."

A hit at Edinburgh 2005, Noise Ensemble is a unique stage show featuring more than 100 percussion instruments from triangles to tom-toms and marimbas to maracas.

Musicians such as Evelyn Glennie, the Scottish percussionist, have introduced a classical repertoire to millions. And the phenomenon of Stomp, which creates rhythms with objects from dustbins to cigarette lighters, has put urban drummers centre stage in London's West End and around the globe.

But Maltby, the first percussionist to win a national music award while still a student, has managed to create a marriage of the two.

"There's so much drama within the music anyway," says Louise Samuels, one of the show's ten performers, "and I think Ethan was always searching for something more dynamic to do with it than just put on a concert. It's certainly energetic. By the end of the show we're covered in bruises with no idea how we got them."

Enhanced by a video back-story, Noise Ensemble is full of playful humour, as tambourines are thrown across a circle of players to create the beats and performers engage in drumming "matches". Maltby and his team of percussionists clearly intend for this family show to be anything but stuffy.

Yet there is real musicianship involved in staging the composers' 20 or so tracks, which range from "really dramatic, kick-ass tracks, like fight scenes at the end of a movie" to "a very ethereal, haunting piece on the vibraophone".

"Many years ago I went to see Stomp," says Samuels. "I did enjoy it very much - but by the end I couldn't take any more of people just tapping on things. I thought, 'please, make a complete rhythm!' It was very clever but I lost interest quickly.

"I like the traditional sound of drums, and all their different tones. There's something about the sound of drums that is completely beyond words... My mum actually cried, she found it so moving. In Edinburgh she came every night. I kept saying, 'do something else, mum!' It hits into something very primeval."

Starts at 7.30pm, tickets cost £12.50-£16.50. Call 08700 606650.