Considering their circus skills are only so-so, NoFit State put on a good show. The Cardiff-based troupe are nowhere near as good as the best tumblers or acrobats you see in London, and last time I saw them their juggling was so unimpressive I wished they'd left it out, which they have in this production.
Add to that no contortionist, no clowns to speak of, and nothing like the ingenuity, nor the mix-and-morph hilarity you get with other circus shows, and you can't quite fathom how it works.
The reason it does is that NoFit State have a raggle-taggle enthusiasm that scoops you up, almost as if you are up there on the trapeze with them.
Their commitment and self-belief is infectious, a lesson many performers should note, added to which the promenade performance literally immerses you in the action, setting you in the drama, and bringing you up close to the riggers and performers, who are sweetly young and dinkily-sized.
Their stage characters, rather coarsely drawn, are older and more worldly, a kind of eco-warrior-meets-Ringmistress decked out in black Lurex pants, DMs, corsets and - a lapse of judgment this - mildly wizard-ish cloaks (someone has been reading too much Harry Potter).
Another lapse is the rubbish voiceover, which is so amplified you catch only fragments and these soon get on your nerves ("travel the seven seas", "follow your dreams", etc).
And yet, and yet ... much of the show is appealing, like the nicely subversive "bathing belles" sequence, the hula hoop girl, and the strong man with a handbag.
Also excellent was the live music, and opening rope act, whose dextrous body-climbs and turning falls were eye-poppingly good.
NoFit State needs tighter editing and a stronger theme, and then you'd be ready to run away and join them.
Until 5 August (0870 389 1846, www.roundhouse.org.uk).
Nofit State Circus: ImMortal 007
Roundhouse
Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, NW1 8EH
