Face Aux Murs - Cie Hors Surface

Face Aux Murs, which translates as Facing the Walls, is an acrobatic trampoline show staged in Abu Dhabi. It is a piece of circus theatre created by Damien Droin and performed by the company Cie Hors Surface. Rather than a classic big-top programme, it uses acrobatics to tell a story about how people relate to one another when everything around them keeps changing.

Six solitary acrobats share the stage with a tall Plexiglas wall placed between two trampolines. That single structure drives the action. The performers watch, hesitate, push forward and resist, and each of those impulses is expressed through movement rather than words. Along the way they face choices about whether to stop, keep going or look for a different route. The set does not stay fixed either: it shifts during the show and changes the physical and emotional space the characters live in.

The wall works as an image of separation and connection at once. It divides people, ideas and spaces, while whatever lies on its far side is left to the audience's imagination. Falling, rising and hanging in the air therefore carry more than their physical thrill, and become ways of imagining how to move through a world that cannot simply be accepted as it is. The piece also asks how a shared society can be built despite exclusion and individualism, presenting the body as a source of freedom and human contact as an answer to isolation.

The performance takes place at The Red Theater, part of The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. The venue sits on the university's Saadiyat Island campus, an area known for its cultural institutions, beaches and waterfront. It is a drive from Dubai, usually around an hour to an hour and a half by car, so many Dubai residents will want to plan the trip around the show.

Face Aux Murs suits anyone who likes physical performance with a story behind it, from circus and theatre fans to those curious about contemporary acrobatics. Expect a seated theatre evening rather than a casual night out. Despite its themes of uncertainty and vertigo, the outlook is hopeful: barriers can be approached differently, setbacks can become new movement, and what seems limiting can turn into the start of reinvention.