FOR LITTLE more than the price of a dubious sandwich and a bag of crisps, Edinburgh's office workers can enjoy a freshly-cooked meal and 50 minutes of improvisational comedy during their lunch-hour.

Out To Lunch - the new midday slot run by Tommy Sheppard, director of the Stand comedy club and Glasgow International Comedy Festival - opened its doors on January 8. It is now two-and-a-half years since theatre producer David MacLennan first launched his lunchtime seasons of A Play, A Pie And A Pint at Glasgow's Òran Mór. The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, meanwhile, has run a successful lunchtime concert series for many years. So, why are we increasingly choosing to be entertained at lunchtime?

Part of the explanation, believes Sheppard, is that Out To Lunch offers an enjoyable and affordable alternative to the dreariness of "standing in the rain waiting to get a lukewarm bridie and a thin latte". Office staff are not the Stand's only target audience. "We're also aiming at the tens of thousands of Edinburgh residents who aren't working at this time of day," he explains. "People for whom the weekend is Monday and Tuesday, not Saturday and Sunday; people who work shifts or work from home, and who work their own hours. It's almost surprising, given changing work patterns, that there isn't more to do, entertainment-wise, during the day."

The current vogue for so-called "flexible working" means that for many of us, the traditional 35-hour, five-day week is a thing of the past. The shift from an industry-based economy to one centred around services is changing the shape of society.

Dundee University economist, Dr Carlo Morelli, agrees that the leisure industry is adapting to changing employment patterns, but points out that the reality behind the much-vaunted growth in "flexible working" is that many people now have less, not more, power over their working lives. "Many people who work from home end up working longer hours, and are less able to defend their employment rights. They can find themselves working nights so that pursuing leisure activities in daytime hours becomes a necessity, rather than a choice."

The entertainment industry has always adapted to societal change, whether technological or economic. It was only the combination of electric light and increasingly harmonised working patterns in the 19th century that created the tradition of going to see live entertainment at night.

From the birth of live theatrical performance in ancient Greece in 5BC, through Japanese Noh theatre in the 14th century to the work of Shakespeare in the 16th and 17th centuries, drama was mainly performed outdoors or in open-air theatres in the daytime. Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Hope points out that most Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre productions relied upon natural light. "During Shakespeare's time, open-air theatres had afternoon performances, with 2pm the usual assumed start time. Indoor theatres could have evening performances thanks to candlelight, but most performances would have been in the daytime."

David MacLennan perceives an irony in our returning to an essentially Shakespearean time for our theatre-going, but points out the trend is part of an increasingly varied array of theatrical experiences. "When I was young, if you wanted to go to the theatre, you went to a rep, and that was more or less it," says MacLennan. "The idea of site-specific work was unknown, touring theatre was very uncommon, as was theatre for children. But today, the idea of going to the theatre during the day doesn't seem so surprising."

Nor, he insists, do people attend lunchtime plays in the expectation of something less taxing on the mind and the emotions than performances they might see in the evening. His programmes have included work by such leading writers as William McIlvanney, Louise Welsh, Peter McDougall and David Harrower. "Some of the short plays I've done have been pretty dark," he says. "They've not been pandering to light lunchtime entertainment. Major authors have written for A Play, A Pie And A Pint. I don't think there's a sense that, because it's short, there's something wanting."

He reports a mixed audience for the performances, including staff from nearby Glasgow University and BBC Scotland, and "the guys in overalls off the building site next door". Back at The Stand, Sheppard is hoping that the lunch hour staff and the flexi workers will combine with students and tourists to provide Out To Lunch with the 50-plus audience the venue needs to break even. Late winter is an ambitious time of year to begin any new venture in the entertainment industry, so it comes as little surprise that, on a chilly Tuesday afternoon, resident improvisers Stuart Murphy and Garry Dobson are playing to a less-than-full house.

But while it may take time to become an established part of the Scottish comedy scene, Out To Lunch has a potentially broad appeal. Murphy and Dobson make a fine, quick-witted double act, and the improv format, drawing on proposals for characters and situations from the audience, means that no two shows are the same.

The Stand's enthusiastic chef, Matthew Steven, provides a menu with four options each day, and the food is good - even if the comics' antics threaten to make me choke on my leek and potato soup.

Not one to miss a marketing angle, Sheppard is trying to sell the economic benefits of lunchtime comedy directly to local companies. "I've written to employers suggesting they encourage their workers to come," he says. "It relieves stress; it produces endorphins; people will go back to work with a smile on their face and they'll be better disposed towards talking with customers or their workmates. It's pretty good for team-building; it's a shared experience, and they'll be chatting about it round the photocopier for weeks."

Out To Lunch is at The Stand, Edinburgh, Monday to Friday, 1.05pm. Entry: £5 www.thestand.co.uk The new season of A Play, A Pie And A Pint opens at the Òran Mór, Glasgow, tomorrow, 12.45pm, with Liz Lochhead's Piece Of My Heart. www.oran-mor.co.uk