The theatre season here usually opens with an enormous outside spectacle. I have never been to any, because there are always just a few shows which are immediately sold out. Not this year. The town theatre has plenty shows, inside and the sales do not go too fast. And so we decided to go and see the Spanish “total theatre group’ La Fura dels Baus and their show “Imperiumâ€. It was promised to be a spectacle and it sure was.
We entered the completely emptied “Philips room†(in the new part of the “Parktheaterâ€) which slowly filled with hundreds of people, making it pretty crowded already. The show started with actors running through the audience, pushing people away, shouting and waving all kinds of weapons. Then massive pieces of stage started to be rolled through the room and the audience had to make way in order not to be ran over. This happened the whole hour and started to become pretty annoying, because we were not particularly politely asked to go and stand somewhere else (usually there was nowhere to go because everybody had to make way).
The ‘story’ can be given in three words: suppression, revolt, war, there is nothing much more to say about the ‘content’ or ‘message’ of the show. It just acted like a hook to hang on fighting scenes of girls in sexy outfits (topless), stripshows and the throwing with eaten apple, champagne, water, powder, rice, etc. and all that under music at an insane volume. Spectacular, for sure, amusing at times, but personally I found it all quickly becoming irritating and the ‘story’ didn’t make things more interesting. The reactions of the audience seem to be from both extremes. Some people completely ‘got into the story’ and found it all magnificent, others were annoyed because of their wrecked suits, wet dresses and hurting ears. I myself ‘got away’ with all the filth relatively untouched, enjoyed the weird findings and S&M like show and the pretty industrial soundtrack, but overall I am not convinced. There is too much violence, some scenes are rather long, the few words spoken are in Spanish and there should have been more story to it.
Should this text have caught your interest, you can still visit “Imperium†in Eindhoven (Netherlands) on the following every evening from 5 to 9 September (none of the shows are curently sold out). Be sure to wear good shoes, cloths that have to be washed anyway and bring ear-plugs.
Links: Parktheater, La Fura dels Baus