Review of theatrical spectacular Fuerza Bruta Roundhouse

After runs in the late 90s and early noughties, experimental theatre company - previously De La Guarda, now Fuerza Bruta - take up their third residency at the Chalk Farm venue with their “happiest show yet”

Part gig, part circus, part dance-theatre, Aven is bookended with an energetic DJ set, and a thunderous mass drumming session that pummels the eardrums.

Aven runs at The Roundhouse until August 31 (Image: Johan Persson)

In between, audiences shuffle across the Roundhouse’s circular space for 70 minutes while a series of logic-defying, bold spectacles plays out around them and over their heads.

It’s all done to a soundtrack of thumping music and frenetic lighting that might leave you a bit spaced out afterwards.

You may wonder whether the harnessed performers holding hands and running around a huge suspended globe are peddling a climate message, or if the dancer in a suspended paddling pool, separated from her spinning lover by the see-through floor, is a metaphor for digital dislocation.

A performer runs around inside a plastic wind tunnel (Image: Johan Persson)

But this is more exhilarating vibe theatre than philosophical query, best to leave your intellect at the door and not question why a besuited man is buzzing around inside a plastic windsock in a paper snowstorm.

Or why a giant inflatable whale piloted by two performers tours the room bumping its nose and flippers on our upstretched hands.

Or why a woman is dangling from the end of a spinning crane, arms outstretched in a gesture of pure freedom, or gyrating dancers are in a horizontal wind tunnel with pretty puffs of scudding clouds.

A crew of dance performers run on a travelator (Image: Johan Persson)

The troupe's signature running man on a travelator bursting through a box of confetti gets a different spin here with what looks like a group of cool friends strutting on a catwalk, smashing the top off a series of boxes sending showers of paper into the air.

The only problem with such episodic, sensual, spectacle is the length between setting up each stunt. And if one of the sections falls below jaw-dropping, it can feel anti-climactic.

Still the whooping crowd on our night seemed happy to leave the cares of the world outside, be sprayed with water, and get into the party atmosphere.

At the end, the performers thank the audience for joining the fun - it’s hard to argue with their infectious energy.

Fuerza Bruta's Aven runs at The Roundhouse until August 31.