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After nine years, the immersive spectacle Fuerza Bruta: Wayra announced that it will close at the end of August (my 2014 review is here). The “multi-sensory” action continues at the Daryl Roth Theatre, for $39 tickets.
Technically speaking, the high-flying visuals and shirt-soaking crowd dynamics have been rocking East 15th Street for nearly 20 years. June 16, 1998 was opening night for De La Guarda, a uniquely unforgettable event created by an Argentine troupe of the same name. It became a local sensation: part rave, part dance show, part interactive stunt in which you might be hoisted 40 feet into the air by performers. The show ran through September 2004. Three years later De La Guarda troupe members Diqui James (staging and direction) and Gaby Kerpel (music) returned with Fuerza Bruta, an equally impressive 360-degree affair, this one tinged with a fatalistic, post–September 11 vibe. Wayra revamped the program seven years later.
What does the closing say about the state of immersive theater in New York? Even though the subgenre is the theatrical opposite of neat, dialogue-driven plays in conventional theaters, you could argue that audiences still hunger for story and characters. Fuerza Bruta was always pretty light on narrative. Long-running hits such as Then She Fell and The Grand Paradise (both created by Third Rail Projects) and the unstoppable Sleep No More (five years and still going) are not plays by any stretch of the imagination, but they do contains masses of (fragmented) narrative material. In a high-stress, media-saturated, tweet-addled world, perhaps folks have enough sense-pounding chaos in their lives, and would like a little handcrafted storytelling to give relief.
At any rate, you have about eight more weeks to lose yourself in the hectic light-and-sound barrage that is Fuerza Bruta.