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In a way it sounds as if the Chumleys and Fanshaws (as they are properly pronounced!) are following in the footsteps of the old-time Pierrots who used to put on shows at the end of piers. Artistic director/choreographer Lea Anderson laughingly agrees that there is an echo of the ''travelling minstrel show'' about this new piece, not least in terms of the audiences it's reaching. ''It's so completely different from what you find in a theatre. The people are a different mix, the response is different. You get this huge audience of people who just wouldn't come to a theatre.

''And outdoors, the whole context of a performance is so different. There's so much you can't control, or predetermine. But, you know, I really like the idea of people just walking past, stopping for a few seconds . . . deciding whether they want to move on or not.''

Or, indeed - as happened during the Brighton run - to join in . . .

This rather suggests that Out On The Windy Beach is some sort of carnival romp. But anyone familiar with Anderson's past work will already suspect that, underneath the lighthearted moments, there is a substantial mesh of serious thinking.

In this instance, the underlying theme is environmental pollution. Last year this came home to Anderson on a profoundly personal, distressing level: she experienced her first ever asthma attack. ''It was a really frightening experience. It was so bad I had to go to hospital.''

That first attack made her reflect on the possibilities for humankind if the current situation were to continue unchecked. ''I spoke to a 'futurology' firm - they predict what will happen, when. And in the year 2050, apparently, UV-proof fabrics will play a much larger role in our clothing. They also predict we'll wear many more kinds of garments - to protect the head, cover the face. And breathing apparatus - little masks will become much more normal, everyday wear as the incidence of asthma and other respiratory diseases increases.''

These projections found their way into one of the ''creative scrapbooks'' that are part of Lea Anderson's preparatory process. There was also lots of material about the sea: happy holidays in scanty swimwear; shipwrecks; over-fishing of diminishing resources; the mythology of mermaids and other hybrid creatures. The idea of the tattoo helped fill in the image she had of skin as a barrier between us and the environment.

While this web of interconnecting and complementary ideas was expanding, Anderson was deciding that she'd really like to do another site-specific piece. Which is how three Chumleys (the all-female group) and three Fanshaws (their all-male counterparts) now find themselves in the year 2050, swaddled in futuristic clothing, in Out On The Windy Beach, dealing with the vagaries of weather and occasional wannabe dancers!

''I'm not sure, entirely, who the dancers, our own dancers, are,'' she says, laughing. ''I'm not sure if they're aliens, just arrived on earth, or if they're the earthlings who are still left. But they are in a world where people are completely covered up, where they can't expose any skin to the outside world, because of global warming.

''Where, in fact, there is a fear of the outside world. So - much to the dancers' chagrin - when they're dancing around to these traditional sea shanties that we've used, they're encased in fluorescent yellow futuristic beachwear, and not nice light bikinis!'' At one point in the piece, the dancers do get to change - or, rather, mutate.

''A friend of mine said 'Look - maybe it's a part of evolution. Human beings are maybe meant to die out and something else, other creatures, will continue and take their place.' And I thought, 'Hmm - cockroaches!' So, in order to

continue living, the dancers start

to mutate.''

She chuckles and adds that it's all quite a contrast to the Disneyfication of nature that so many people are exposed to nowadays. So far, however, she's not sure how audiences are reacting to this marvellous amalgam of images - except that they do seem to be having a tremendous time, turning up with rugs, wine, coffee, and the makings of picnics.

Altogether it's a vastly different atmosphere from what you find inside your average city theatre. ''It makes you realise that the people who go to theatres aren't the be all and end all of civilisation,'' she says.

n At the MacRobert Arts Centre tonight and tomorrow. The production will come to Barshaw Park, Paisley, in June.