Final Days And Fuerzabruta
We’re down to our last three days in Edinburgh now, and the city is at its busiest. The last weekend of the Fringe sees companies pull out all the stops to try and pack out their audiences, impress the awards judges, and generally go out with a bang. The free-for-all flyering posts on the Royal Mile are burgeoning and have at least doubled in thickness with layers upon layers of posters stuck over whatever was pasted on just minutes before. The crowds have also got bigger, as locals drag themselves out to enjoy a last night or two of fun, and students from all over the country make the trip up, safe in the knowledge that the expense of this soon-to-be lost weekend can be covered by their quickly-approaching loans. Tourists too, throng the streets more than ever, and can be easily spotted by the oversize maps they carry, never quite folding perfectly over the bulge of their oversize cameras slung loosely around their expectant necks. They are also the only group regularly willing not only to watch, but also to pay good money to see a kilted anachronism squeaking out tunes of independence on the criminally-annoying bagpipes. Everyone here makes up their own part of this great yet temporary melting-pot, rubbing shoulders with others they’d never come across, and contributing in their own way, whatsoever it be. Until Monday at least, the grey stone streets will still resound with the many-accented crowd’s seething hubbub, and the shows will go on.
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Last night I made my way out of the city proper to the port of Leith, and spent a couple of hours in a huge purpose-built black tent, housing the one and only Fuerzabruta. This event is not easily categorized, but suffice it to say that it was the single most involving and intense thing I have ever been witness to. Involving dance, music, performance art, theatre, and circus acts, all to a heavy techno soundtrack, the audience is fully immersed in this total sensory experience. I haven’t stopped smiling yet, and the imagery, energy, and synergy with which it is presented cannot fail to move. It’s like nothing else you will have seen, and even at £25 a ticket, is worth far more.
The audience is surrounded by odd but aesthetically awesome tableaux and performances, including a man running on a giant treadmill whilst avoiding and smashing through obstacles, an aerobatic display on a huge curtain of tinfoil, and a sublimely beautiful water-dance, which took place in a transparent tank suspended within touching distance. You get wet and dirty throughout the show, and are frequently moved around, but this all adds to the feeling of utter involvement: the actors even choreograph the spectators to rave away.
If you haven’t seen this yet, sell whatever you can to raise the money, and get out to Leith. To look around at the end and see every single person smiling in awestruck, spent wonder is a sight beyond words. A collective ecstasy such as this is something rarely felt in any situation, but to experience it here is life-affirming. The power of spectacle has never been demonstrated better, and it will change you.
