Macbeth’s “full of sound and fury signifying nothing” are my first thoughts. And then Caliban’s “the isle is full of noises” after seeing a man trapped like Ariel (in the RSC’s 2016 production) in a long plastic tube, here full of swirling ticker tape.
Seventy minutes straight through, Aven is a rave, a gig, we the sheep in the fold below, they the aerial creatures high above lit by strobe lighting—a son et lumière with a row of drummers pounding out a heavy beat on the stage. If you’re claustrophobic, do not enter the centre, where you will be water-sprayed from a jet hose. If you stay on the periphery, you won’t see everything.
Special effects: a large globe with humans (on wires) clinging on like splattered flies; a fish tank with girl inside and man underneath on the outside; four performers on a travelator; a girl dangling from a huge girder; and a blinking Moby Dick blue whale with pilots inside.
There are long pauses in the programme—as these things are manoeuvred into place—filled with elementary club moves. The dance vocabulary is limited. The lady next to me is disappointed, saying it’s repetitive. My companion thinks it banal. Sadly, I have to agree with them both. The lady came on her sister’s recommendation, I because I remember them of old.
I don't want to spoil the fun, but Argentinian group Fuerza Bruta’s (fourteen performers plus DJ) “happiest show on Earth” does not live up to my memory of them. Has time diminished them or are they having technical difficulties?
In 2006, I was thrilled by them for Plays International: “for 65 unrelenting minutes of optical illusion, spinning psychedelic strobe lighting, pounding club beats and ambient world music… primal, loud, pulsating, damp, dirty, dissociated… do not look for meaning; there is none—just let the senses go and experience the sensations—claustrophobia might be one of them—be part of it...”
Sadly, they don’t draw me in this time. “This short (more would be too much), majestic, magical, childish, noisy show…” seems to have lost something. Tension, pace and content are rather thin. Special effects can’t hide that. It feels empty, soulless.
The globe lets off steam—maybe this is all it is, a letting off of steam therapeutic session. It’s more fairground (with beautiful butterflies) rather than Cirque de Soleil antics. There’s a lot of complicated engineering for little payoff. Hofesh Shechter’s percussive dance gigs at the Roundhouse come to mind—not to Fuerza Bruta’s advantage on this showing. They are here for a long run and maybe things will change. I hope so.