DV8 Physical Theatre's new work has piercing images and vignettes that you won't forget — that will make you think differently. At its best, it is a mixture of the shattering, the hilarious and the deeply affecting.

can we afford this, otherwise known as the cost of living, is partly a study in illusions: the masks that individuals adopt to hide their true feelings, and the visual variety that dazzles us at the circus. It also explores the toll that life itself takes on a human being.

This juxtaposition of humour and horror gives can we afford this its edge in a series of vignettes, anecdotes or merely fleeting images. Director Lloyd Newson has worked with a diverse cast of dancers who are credited with devising the piece. They range from the extremely able-bodied to a man with no legs, a woman in her 70s and a hugely overweight man.

Of them all, the legless David Toole makes the greatest impact. Toole has an astonishing duet with Eddie Kay in which the two move with a kind of rough equality as Toole's strategies counter his physical disadvantage.

Then, and in a later encounter, the body language says it all. In one of the spoken sections that works well — not all of them do — Toole maintains his dignity at ground level as a male dancer circles threateningly around him with questions about intimate details of his physicality.

This extra knowledge of Toole as a character makes his progress across a darkened stage with tall Kate Coyne all the more poignant. She is doubled over like a four-legged animal, he is balanced on her back, and it looks as though her legs are his. This is a man who is still jumping — with no legs.

The talents of Paul Capsis are not used to advantage. The large and the elderly are peripheral.

There are also brilliantly memorable dance sequences. Rowan Thorpe has a funky stream of consciousness solo, Kate Coyne and Vivien Wood have a witty duet with balloons. Eddie Kay makes his mark through a quick-fire personality that matches his dancing.

At the shattering conclusion, Newson strips off the mask of illusion. Yet this seems to confuse the audience. You can feel it around you. It is one of many moments that makes the can we afford this unmissable, despite some reservations.