There is a sound like gunfire, a spit of fire and suddenly out of the darkness moves a strange engine-like machine, a steel dragon that parts the crowd with its hot tongues of flame. Aviator-style figures push the machine towards an open space, while a jaunty version of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines plays. The machine appears to stall and is cheerfully cranked up. Then it is upended and transformed into a rocket.

There is something very aspirational about outdoor theatre with its abounding images of flight, towers and rockets. Perhaps it is merely the need to create a spectacle that is high enough up for a large crowd to see.

What is so nice about this pyrotechnic collaboration between Peepolykus and The World Famous is that it has an engagingly comic edge. It both mocks the idea of the Soviet/US space race yet also celebrates the impulse that drives human beings to try to fly. Near the beginning there is a breathtakingly beautiful image as the aviator fruitlessly flaps his wings, the tips already ablaze so he looks like a sparkling bird of paradise. It is both funny and touching.

Later there is a moment that recalls the Challenger disaster, although in this case victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat. In a coup de theatre the like of which I haven't seen since Ninagawa's Medea took flight off a building during a long-past Edinburgh festival, certain death turns to triumph and an excuse to let off loads of fireworks.

But this is so much more than just a firework display. At little more than 35 minutes Blast! may not be worth travelling many miles for, but it is a pleasure to watch. It is also interesting as an indication of the increasing sophistication of British outdoor theatre, suggesting that it can go beyond spectacle to embrace narrative, emotion and multilayered meaning.

· Blast! is at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea (01424 787949), on August 25 .