A grand new glass entrance walkway that also contains box office, café and bars has been bolted onto the old Roundhouse in Camden, but otherwise its business as usual for the venerable alternative space as it reopened last night. That déjà vu is enhanced, of course, by the opening show Fuerzabruta being created by Diqui James, co-founder and co-creator of De La Guarda, and featuring music by Gaby Kerpel, composer for De La Guarda, the spectacular physical theatre extravaganza that previously played at the Roundhouse in 1999 and became the longest running show ever there.
This vast circular, industrial “found space” is exactly the kind of infinitely flexible environmental setting that shows like Fuerzabruta need to come alive in – audience, playing space and performers become one, moving to the show’s weird but distinctive rhythms that redefines movement as harnessed performers fly through the air and then unharnessed ones throw themselves about in a watery pool lowered directly above your head. It did, however, mean that the restorative work on the Roundhouse itself was hidden from view. But though the venue itself should have been the star itself last night, there will be other opportunities to see it close up and more personally.
For now, it’s enough that the Roundhouse is back. The challenge for Chief Executive Marcus Davey and his programming director Verity McArthur, however, will now be to fill it will events that match its scale (and potential seating capacity). Not all shows can be Fuerzabruta; but serious theatre artists also look like they’re being drawn to the space already. Legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham is bringing his biggest piece, Ocean, into the round here in September – putting 14 dancers into the middle of the Roundhouse, surrounded by the audience who are themselves surrounded byi 150 musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
