With its live band, jazzy score and beguiling mix of whimsy and punky defiance, it is not surprising that Nofit State's ground-breaking show makes you want to run away to the circus. Turning everything upside down (including themselves), the company put the audience in the central ring and perform above and around us. The result is an exhilarating feeling of being in the thick of things: bodies twist and twirl on ropes within reach; beach balls are batted among the audience.
I first caught this show a couple of years back in Edinburgh, and while it remains a benchmark for British circus companies in its attempt to find a new structure for traditional circus skills, the show seems to have lost something in its transfer. The Victorian Roundhouse is perfect for this wistful piece and its beautiful fleeting images, but the sheer number of people in the audience makes it hard to see. It is also difficult to hear the voiceover, so the slender thread of narrative is lost and the show simply becomes like any other circus show: a series of acts.
That said, there are moments here when the whole thing does really pull together. It is often at its best when several things are happening at once.There are moments of terrific wit and invention, including a tug of war played out in a boxing ring situated in thin air. It is a show that is not afraid to be lyrical either: a man and woman make love on a rope, while a balancing act is given almost religious intensity by unaccompanied voices. It is just that it is all a mite paler than I remember.
· Until August 5. Box office: 0870 389 1846.
