Does the word clowning conjure up mental pictures of men in big shoes, squirting water from plastic flowers and slapping custard pies in peoples' faces?

Then it's time to wipe away that image and let Theatre Farces redesign your imagination.

The clowning displayed in their production Fantasia is a delicate and delicious art, which is both hilarious and heart-warming.

Performed without words, this 80-minute show is compelling from start to finish. Set to an atmospheric soundtrack of quirky European music, Fantasia is a visual treat which captured a gentle magic often lost in contemporary theatre.

The beauty of this show is that it allows adults and children to sit side by side and laugh at the ridiculous and the silly together.

The woman with vegetables for hair, the crazy pelvic-thrusting hairdresser and the proud cactus lover with a lust for spikes, tickles the four-year-olds as much as the 40 plus.

Fantasia is a jigsaw of sketches combining mime, physical theatre, comedy and clowning with seamless grace. Six performers, each unique in his comic characterisation, take it in turns to juggle crazy ideas, practical jokes and surreal scenarios, most hilarious being an orchestra who created sound with their faces.

Originality is something Theatre Farces have in abundance. They seize every opportunity to be creative with props, space and sound. Stilt walkers transform into clouds, a Japanese woman unravels her kimono to release a flock of starlings and lighters and torches are used during a hypnotic light show.

Fantasia sucks us into a unexpected world where the mind can roam free and we can laugh without inhibtions.

Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, until Thursday