"This wasn't just about a woman drinking a lot of beer. This was a powerful piece of art."

The Japanese artist Tomoko Takahashi drinks 48 bottles of beer then walks across a balance beam -- and has a £5,000 grant to do it.

James Tyson, the theatre's programmer, defended the performance, staged as part of the centre's Experimentica 05 season. He said: "Miss Takahashi is an internationally renowned artist. Her work constantly questions the way products are marketed and the role of mass media in society."

To be fair, there is some question about whether she actually drank all 48 bottles of beer.