Review: FUERZA BRUTA: AVEN, The Roundhouse

Feeling like the wildest circus party in town, Fuerza Bruta (Spanish for “brute force”) return to the Roundhouse with their new show Aven.

As in their previous outings, the USP here is the immersive staging with the audience standing on the floor of the cavernous Roundhouse while the action happens above and around them.

This is the Argentinean company’s third visit to London after being the first act to play the refurbished Roundhouse in 2006 before coming back in 2013. Their spectacular brand of family-friendly aerial feats, loud carnival beats and dynamic showmanship arrives with new twists and turns.

Artistic director Diqui James has railed in the past against traditional theatre - “boring”, “elitist” and “intellectual” are some of the words he uses in public - and there is something unremittingly democratic about Aven. For starters, there is no seating in the main body of the arena and so everyone can choose their own spot to experience the 70-minute show. Further, there are no premium tickets and, instead, for most nights there is a standard ticket price with around fifty per cent concessions available for students, the unwaged and those 50 and over. (All those lamenting high ticket prices in London, please take note.)

For James, sound is as important as anything else (it’s a trait that runs in the family: his son opened for Taylor Swift when she last played in Buenos Aires). Deafening drums played live on stage kick off the show and there is never a moment where this doesn’t feel like we’ve been dropped into a Brazilian rave. The pounding music lifts the heartrate before a series of eye-popping set pieces: dancers on wires jump around a globe before it suddenly spurts jets of smoke; in a floor-to-ceiling tube full of swirling tickertape, a man navigates his way up and down and side to side; a woman is lofted into the air dangling from the end of a crane and dances over our heads; and the grand finale sees a massive inflatable whale appear above close enough for us to touch.

Technically, there’s barely a foot put wrong. The sophisticated rigging and staging are world-class and ensure that, despite this being one of most complex shows in town, the spectacle continues flawlessly around and above the audience. There are always risks associated with this kind of event - as shown when three people were injured during their last Roundhouse run - but, to paraphrase Sir Terry Pratchett, circus on this scale happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

Some sequences approach physical poetry. Fighting against rows of vertical jet streams, we see performers move in bullet-time in a futile battle against the flows. A woman is seen in an overhead transparent box, thrashing around in water. After being lowered and then lifted again, we can see a man attached to the underside facing her. Their interactions play out a tortured scene which goes from passionate kissing through the glass to angry bashing. So near yet so far.

There’s no dramatic arcs and much of what is presented is abstract but James brings the pace up and down with consummate ease. The violence of earlier shows has been replaced with more mellow offerings. Instead of seeing a man running for his life before being gunned down, we instead have colour-coded dancers sprinting on travelators. Instead of trying to shock us with potentially fatal antics, we are invited to inspect at close range a panorama of impressive skills and props.

Fuertza Bruta’s Aven is undoubtably event circus. Like the staging seen in Nicholas Hytner’s Guys & Dolls and No Fit State Circus’ 2013 show Bianco, the feeling of being at the centre of the room creates a palpable sense of connection to the experience which is happening all around. There’s nothing else in London quite like this.

Fuerza Bruta's Aven continues at the Roundhouse until 1 September.

Photo credit: Johan Persson

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