Furiozo: Man looking for trouble is a show with very few words but so much meaning

Furiozo: Man looking for trouble is a mostly mimed show written and acted by Polish clown Piotr Sikora at Adelaide Fringe for its second season. It’s been a hit around the world with good reason. 

You may not think that an angry man who grunts, and roars, thumping the door before making his entrance to the stage could possibly make for a show with meaning, and even a bit of heart, but in Philippe Gaulier trained Piotr Sikora’s hands, his character Furiozo does just that. 

Dressed like a boxer, in shorts and bare-chested, with a mouth guard making the lower part of his face protrude, Furiozo is quite intimidating. When he first starts to interact with the audience, you can’t help but be a little scared that he may scream in your face but instead it’s either a handshake, or a selfie. 

Over the 60 minute show, the audience follows Furiozo through gun tricks, some impressive bike tricks, a shootout, some petty theft, a police chase, jail, a jail break, drugs, love, and loss. And remember all of this is mimed – there is barely any dialogue in this captivating piece of comedy clown theatre. It’s only when Piotr needs to make sure the audience understands something that he may speak. Otherwise, the only sounds we hear from him are the roars and grunts. 

There is audience participation but Sikora guides, not humiliates, whether it be moving people to where he wants them on the stage to demonstrating to them what he wants them to do. However, if you don’t want to get plucked out of the crowd to go on stage, it’s best to stay away from the front row and the aisles. 

The audience as a whole get involved at certain points in the show. The bike tricks that see a bike ride over audience heads for example is the audience passing a tiny bike from front to back and back to front. 

Furiozo finds love – his partner a mannequin propped up to the side of the audience. They dance, they drink, they have sex, she falls pregnant and they have their first child. Furiozo’s interactions with the mannequin had some in the crowd very uneasy with a few behind us saying “oh no, oh no, no, no, don’t do it no”. 

But Furiozo isn’t just a thug, he cares about consent and before even kissing the mannequin would ask the audience whether it was ok, asking us with thumbs up or thumbs down. And on consent, even when it comes to the scene of petty theft in which Furiozo “steals” an audience member’s handbag, he seeks her consent to open it and go through its contents. 

Without a single word, the performance spoke volumes. Every gesture, expression, and movement were so precise and evocative that there was never any doubt about what was happening. It was a testament to Sikora’s mastery of mime, honed through training at some of the world’s most renowned clown schools with masters Philippe Gaulier, Aitor Basauri, Mick Barnfather, Dr. Brown, and Angela de Castro. In an age of ever-shrinking attention spans, it’s a rare feat to hold an audience captive without dialogue—but this Sikora did just that.

You could watch Furiozo: Man Looking for Trouble purely for its wild, electrifying spectacle without dwelling on deeper themes. But beneath the surface, there’s subtlety—like the portrayal of patterns repeating across generations. The show doesn’t force-feed its message, yet it lingers in your mind, prompting reflection long after you’ve left the theatre.

A gun-toting, cocaine-snorting rollercoaster ride, Furiozo: Man Looking for Trouble delivers both hilarity and heart. You’ll laugh, you may even cry—but you certainly won’t forget it.