They germinated in the eighties, with the underground theater. They emerged in the 90s displaying their visceral and rebellious spirit. But they established themselves in the 2000s when their technical development put them on a par with the great shows of Broadway. La Fura dels Baus, Mayumana, and the locals Fuerza Brutatoday they are celebrated brands of the theatrical scene with several companies and multiple mutations that adapt them to different audiences.
“We have been softening Because life has seasons. The energy we had in ’84 you don’t have now. Now what we do is look for ‘fureros’ who have that energy to continue showing that tougher face of La Fura. And we as directors take other responsibilities and we have seen that the provocation is not only the screambut also silence or a well-spoken word”, points out Carlus Padrissa, director of La Fura dels Baus
the company comes from putting on a live horror show based on the movie”[REC]”, and that has been opened to the production of operas, such as “Carmina Burana”, “the poacher” (which will be broadcast this July 31 by Film&Arts), or “Joana de Arco”, which was presented at the Royal Theater with the French actress Marion Cotillard at the head of a dystopian show, faithful to the seal of the Catalan company.
In the operasLa Fura dels Baus found the space to continue experimenting and renew your aesthetic while revolutionizing the genre. “Where the most innovation is taking place is in opera,” says the director of La Fura, Alex Ollé, who participated in four productions at the Teatro Colón (“Le Grand Macabre”, “Quartett”, “Oedipus” and “Un ballo in mask”). “You have to stir people up again and tell them: move your assget out of that comfort and look for experiences, look for new things”, he adds.
It is the spirit shared by the shows of the genre, which are also renewed with the interaction of the public. “There are two large groups of spectators: those over 50 years old, who come to remember what they have already experienced, and the children of these people, who are amazed and tell us that it is something new, when it’s actually something from 23 years ago”, bare Padrissa.
Fernando Moyaproducer of Brute force which is presented this month at the Obras Stadium with “wayra”, agrees: “The public grows, and the children join. That is why I say that ours is not an essentially young audience. The show power and participation make it another show for young people who want to jump, dance, get wet… But there are many families. It’s an experience shared by all.”
the beginning
The mayumanawho are currently touring Spain, were born a 25 years in a Tel Aviv garage. The Israeli group that has been seen by eight million viewers in more than twenty countries (it filled the Rialto Theater in Madrid in June), it was proposed two and a half decades ago to revolutionize dance with a return to the primitive, to the tribal, with percussion based on simple objects as the protagonist (cans of garbage and tennis balls), and the body as a fundamental weapon: its name comes from “mayumanut”, a word that in Hebrew it means ability.
points in common with Brute forcethe company that march towards 20 years of lifeand works as a second life of of the guardand which in turn is inspired by La Fura dels Baus, which began its journey in 1979 (completed four decades in 2019), seeking to transgress the limits of the performing arts.
“The festive did not fit with us, we were not didactic for children’s theater, we were late. Once we were a day late for a performance,” he recalls. Carlus Padrissa, “La Fura did not invent anything, but managed to unite elements of previous things. the happening, the theater of cruelty and other experimental styles”, adds Miki Espuma, another of the company’s directors. “In the 80s there was no creation without friction,” says Álex Ollé.
The group visited Argentina for the first time in 1985. And a year later, in 1986, in Cement, Diqui James and the musician Gaby Kerpel, would present UORC, kicking off what would later be of the guardand today Brute Force.
Language
Music was a fundamental element. “In the furious shows no text nor any explanation, the music is what carried the rhythm and the understanding of the show”, he explains. miki foam.
And while La Fura was nourished by the English industrial music of the early 80s, and the electronic music of the Germans of kraftwerkDe la Guarda did it from the rock revolution of the Latin rhythms of the ’90s with black hand to the head. And a new change would take place after 2000. “I remember that we were coming out of the 2001 crisis. mayumana. The guys play, they don’t speak, we didn’t know if it was theater… And the show was a boom, we did twenty great rex. And we understood that the key was the no language”, review Fernando Moya.
“Mayumana’s manager himself told me in 2003 that Diki, the creator of De la Guarda, was doing something new with a running machine, a swimming pool, and in my head it closed. De la Guarda had been in London and New York, and when I picked up the phone there was no rowing to sell it. We started in 2005 in Buenos Aires. And the round house from London took us as their reopening show in 2006. In London we sold 3000 tickets, and then came New York, Tokyo and the tours”, continues Moya. Fuerza Bruta visited 58 cities in 34 countries, with 5,800 presentations before more than 6 million. And alone in New York they sold 900 thousand tickets.
networks
Cables, ropes, lights and lasers, consoles and smoke and wind machines, giant metal and mobile structures, a large pool of water, harnesses, giant curtains and more, make “wayra”, the show that Brute force replenishes (now in Obras), a unique experience.
“We knew that it was a show that had different things, that it even added things that were not talked about back then. But the phenomenon was. Words like immersive, 360, weren’t spoken, but the show had them. It was inclusive, empowering”, reviews Fernando Moya, manager and producer of Fito Paez, Charly Garcia, Divididos and Los Pericos, and today at the head of Ozono
Those concepts that the show had in its genesis, plus its enormous visual impact, took on another dimension with the explosion of the networks, amplifying the phenomenon. “From 2005 he began to weigh. Facebook was an important path for massiveness. Then YouTube, and closer to Instagram and TikTok. It served to boost Brute force in internationalizing. In Taiwan and Seoul we exploded because the networking had been done very well in the previous one. And in China we failed, precisely because we lacked the networks. We hit a novel pineapple and it took years to accommodate it. Today the show is lived with the phone camera in hand: “You take a photo from anywhere and it comes out amazing”, celebrates Moya.
Brand
After the stop imposed by the pandemic and the cancellations, Brute force prepares to spin again. “Culture strikes back”, they celebrate at the same time from La Fura, chosen in Spain as the standard-bearer for this round after Covid, with several shows in parallel.
“We have a company of 35 people, plus 15 production people, and we already have another 30 people who they are going to do korea starting in early August. And we are doing a casting for the third company”, lists the producer of “wayra”, in search of new performers in circus schools, a network that has multiplied becoming a phenomenon.
“Today the circus world is not that far away,” endorses Moya, who says that Cirque du Soleil itself thought of absorbing them: “At some point we had a conversation that lasted months, and it didn’t materialize. But it helped us to understand the phenomenon. Part of Cirque’s growth is creative, they have added Swiss, Italian, French directors… And they have support from the Canadian government. Us we did the Bicentennial ceremony and the opening of the Youth Olympic Games, but I cannot say that we are a country brand”, confesses the producer of the company that does work “for export”: while local tickets are around 10 dollars, in other venues for the same show the price ranges between 40 and 50. Even “Uruguay, Chile, Brazil bank 30 to 40 dollars,” he says. A scenario that enhances the search for local talent for tours.
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