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The British theater collective Forced Entertainment will perform its absurd, dark comedy “B

A slightly demented cheerleader takes the stage. Heavy-metal wannabes, in a fit of inspiration, prop up lights, speakers and fog machines. And a woman, dressed in a gorilla suit, pantomimes as if she’s part of a children’s performance.

The scene is from the British art collective Forced Entertainment’s production “Bloody Mess.” The company will launch the U.S. premiere of the show for UCLA Live’s Fourth International Theater Festival at the Freud Playhouse from Dec. 1-4.

“On the one hand, it’s a mess. But on the other hand, there’s a lot of fun and energy and you get taken into different kinds of places,” said Tim Etchells, the director of Forced Entertainment.

“Bloody Mess” is loaded with absurdity, self-mockery and farce. According to Etchells, in the first scene characters proclaim how they want to be viewed by the audience.

“One character says she wants to affect the spectators with so much poignancy that they will return home in tears,” Etchells said. “Meanwhile, a slapstick clown tells the story of the world’s beginning.”

But this is clearly no airy comedy. The mood is as strikingly dark as it is absurd. Throughout “Bloody Mess,” tensions rise between the characters, who each hold a different vision for the play’s direction.

But in addition to the characters’ on-stage discomfort with having to reconcile their differences, the show’s brash content will most likely place the audience in uncomfortable positions.

“This is, at heart, a play about the negotiations we make as humans. Many of these negotiations are uncomfortable, awkward or difficult,” Etchells said. “The audience might think, ‘What was I laughing at? That’s horrible!’ Then you’re laughing two seconds later.”

Established in Sheffield, England, in 1984, Forced Entertainment is undoubtedly tied to the British history of experimental theater. The Guardian, a widely read British newspaper, even proclaimed the company to be Britain’s “most brilliant” experimental theater group.

But “Bloody Mess” in particular is not distinctly British. Many of the play’s themes, such as city life, identity and sexual politics, media, and language are universal enough in scope to strike a chord with Los Angeles audiences.

“The play is a mental map for how people get along in cities,” Etchells said.

Works like “Bloody Mess” reflect Forced Entertainment’s ingenuity in coiall typical theaterning its own brand of theater, a “group creation.”

For months, Forced Entertainment’s six core members, as well as some new additions to the company, crafted “Bloody Mess.” All material is based upon their improvisations.

Many of these artists have, throughout the years, offered a wide range of artistic works, such as gallery installations, documentary films, digital media, dance and theater. But they consciously stray away from the classical British theater scene.

“That (kind of theater) is not our culture and not talking about the world we’re living in,” Etchells said.

The artists instead look to modern influences such as cinema, music culture and comic books. The collective places old greats such as Shakespeare or Webster on the shelf. The end result, “Bloody Mess,” may be Forced Entertainment’s most powerful work to date.

Despite their talent, Forced Entertainment has always stood as outsiders in the mainstream British theater scene. Some critics claim their plays, including “Bloody Mess,” are just that – too messy.

They have never performed at the National Theater in London, which often presents classical plays as well as contemporary works. Nor have they been invited to Bite, an experimental theater program based in the Barbican Arts Centre. But Forced Entertainment takes this in stride.

While “Bloody Mess” is not classical, its impact comes from what it has chosen not to be.

“The best decision we ever made was that we weren’t interested in being a successful theater company,” Etchells said. “It took us 10 years to realize that fully – that the ladder one was meant or expected to climb in the UK was of no interest to us.”