When people talk about running away to join the circus, the emphasis is normally on the running away - leaving the mundane behind and heading for the exotic. Pirates of the Carabina offer a different view, with the emphasis on joining. The circus is where the heart is, where you finally get to be yourself, to accept that what you're best in the world at is swinging on your chair, to find the universe is kind enough to pay you to do it! I don't think it was only me watching and wondering what would have happened if I'd gone to circus school, and this is not a show I'd recommend if you're suffering from itchy feet or a mid-career crisis.

As well as rushing in and out of the audience (and wildly over our heads, at times) in Flown we get a wide array of live music, performed by the multi-talented chaps who are also dancing, flying and performing acrobatic feats. We also get to know them and something of their philosophy through monologues which break the fourth wall. It's difficult to know if these are true, or in character, but they feel very genuine, offering a glimpse into backstage life. There are funny pieces, tragic, heartfelt, ranty, and sweet snippets. Every so often they offer real wisdom: "I think it's really important for people to be able to support their own body weight" says Shaena. After all if you can't support yourself, how can you support someone else?

If this troupe specialise in anything, it is duets. With the Person Counterweighted Hoop, what looks like a solo is actually a cunning pas de deux, as the counterweight person scampers up and down a scaffolding tower, carefully orchestrating the vertical movement of the hoop. The young acrodancers Winston and Axel move together like a pair of angel fish, tumbling and climbing. Although their big number is thoroughly upstaged, if you do manage to keep your eyes on them they show off the most amazing sinewy shoulder muscles, individual strands taut and straining as Axel lifts Winston above his head.

And if this all sounds a bit reverent and serious, don't worry as any second now - crash! and a man will fall out of the lighting gantry and a rig will crunch down on stage, or something might go spontaneously wrong. Or a teeny-tiny plastic horse will appear, and charm the audience! Shaena dances with an ironing board, Craig and Ellis with a floor lamp. Jack sings while rollerblading, Barnz lives it up as the granddaddy of the troupe with his megaphone. Alfa climbs everyone and everything, and in her duet with Jack they take turns to sit on each other. Equality reigns.

I have to admit I began by thinking it seemed a bit disorganised, that no trick was pushed to its limits, that the comedy premise (that the show wasn't ready) didn't mesh with the serious skills on display. But by about a third of the way through the first half I was filled with a supreme sense of wellbeing. Maybe humanity isn't so bad after all, maybe with this sort of inventive madness, the world will be ok. Maybe, when people are allowed to find out who they are at heart, and do what they do best, things will work out. Maybe, to notice things that don't work is to entirely, fundamentally and massively miss the point.

After the manic, soaring finale, the troupe got a standing ovation. More than that, they got love. A whole new generation will know their names, and that they too want to earn a living doing what they are passionate about, and that contemporary circus is where it's at.