When you go to most theatrical shows, the physical experience is the same. You walk in. You're shown to your seat. You scan a program. The lights go down, the curtain comes up and you watch. With the exception of occasional applause -- and even more occasional cheers or tears -- you don't really do anything.
"That's what we don't like about theater," said "Fuerza Bruta" creator and artistic director Diqui James. "It's like I will stay at home and watch it on my phone."
The Argentine show, which has played 58 cities and spent nine years off-Broadway, is heading to Las Vegas this March, where it will have a six-month, limited engagement in a tent at the Excalibur.
At "Fuerza Bruta," James said, "you bring your phone, you bring your body, you bring your friends, you can shout. This is a physical show. This is happening. This is real. It's a physical, emotional journey, and it's challenging for your mind."
That physicality is literal -- for both the cast and the audience. "Fuerza Bruta" is a 70-minute, standing show where there are no seats and no stage. The audience essentially fills a room, and the performance takes place above, around and among the crowd. Artists sprint suspended by cables, splash in a Lucite pool, bounce off the walls and reach out to touch the guests and each other. It is an onslaught of stimuli, art as adrenalin, a show you don't so much watch as feel.
James translates "Fuerza Bruta" to "raw power. It's before words in a way. You're inside a show where we don't use words. It's all actions and effects and emotions."
In Las Vegas, James sees an entertainment scene that's grown predictable and a city shouting for something new. As visitors have gotten younger and their weekends more focused on nightlife and partying, he said, there hasn't been a production show that caters to them.
"We know what kind of audience we're going to have. We're going to have a young, crazy audience that wants to have a good time."
To create the "Fuerza Bruta" experience for those people, the company is erecting a 3,800-square-foot tent in the Excalibur parking lot, the same tent used for Cirque du Soleil's original "Nouvelle" production at the Mirage. Step inside the doorway and you'll enter a black box, a blank canvas where anything can happen, and where the artistic director is building a show that includes the company's staple touch points as well as new elements, music and effects.
For Las Vegas, "everything is bigger, stronger, louder," James said.
Fifteen years and millions of tickets into "Fuerza Bruta," he added, the challenge is less about proving the value of his creative vision and more about not letting the pressure of a spot on the Strip push him into safer territory or catering to outside expectations.
"We have to be in Vegas. This is our town. I've been saying that for 10 years," James said. Now, the Argentine artist is eager to shake loose of the expected and welcome Vegas visitors to an entertainment carnival.
"Fuerza Bruta" opens March 7, with performances at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets start at $72.50. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit excalibur.com.