If your only experience of the circus was being dragged along to watch a few sad animals and a slightly scary clown in a big top, No Fit State are the ones to show you just how much times have changed.

The Wales-based company have been busy building a reputation as one of the best contemporary circuses in the world over the last 25 years, mixing circus skills with storytelling, honing them into a full theatrical performance.

Mundo Paralelo is a first for the company as they abandon their Big Top for a full theatre-based show.

Performers use every inch of space to show off their skills, from the small and intimate to the big and bold. There are daring trapeze acts dangling over the audience's heads, exhorting gasps from the crowd, to deft illusions that leave you confounded.

Dressed in clothes from different eras, the artists exist in parallel to each other, mirroring each other but never quite meeting. From an Edwardian lady hanging in the air to a pratfalling 1940s' everyman, a modern teenage girl to a mysterious Victorian puppetmaster, this collection of characters amaze with wire-walking, acrobatics, unbelievable juggling and even some comedy competitive hula hooping.

Most striking was the trust between the artists who perform high-risk acts backed up only by the counter-balanced weight and alertness of their colleagues. It's up close and personal in the relatively small theatre, which is how these performers like it.

No Fit State may have started life on the streets of Cardiff, but they¹re now fit for the high-life.

Mundo Paralelo is at the Riverfront Theatre until Saturday (Feb 25).