Complicite

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Founded 1983. ‘…the most influential and consistently interesting theatre company working in Britain’ (The Times)

12/10/2026

Congratulations to the brilliant Anne Carson for being awarded the Nobel prize in literature.

Her unique, poetic works that transcend genre and resist easy categorisation have long been a source of inspiration for Complicité.

Earlier this year we produced Anne's one-act radio play, I Don't Do Innocents. Directed by and starring Simon McBurney, the cast includes Annabel Arden, Thomas Arnold, Tamzin Griffin, Richard Katz, Sarah Slimani, Emma Corrin and Finn Deutsch Kelly.

Created for The Paris Review, the play is available to listen to on The Paris Review, Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your audio.

www.complicite.org/work/i-dont-do-innocents

📷 Anne Carson by Pontus Lundahl/TT/Reuters, Sarah Ainslie

29/09/2026

📢Teachers & Educators: Our Autumn/Winter digital offer is available now📢

Bring Complicité's work into your classroom with our autumn/winter term Digital Offer, which provides online access to a selection of our productions and resources.

Choose from four tailored packages, all featuring our 30-minute documentary Complicité Does A Level Drama, designed to demystify the devising process for drama students.

Accompanying this film, educational institutions can opt for either the film of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, the film of A Disappearing Number, or our digital performance Can I Live?. You can also opt to rent A Disappearing Number and Can I Live? together.

For more information, see https://www.complicite.org/education/digital-offer/.

24/09/2026

Here are the brilliant company behind Questions for John, bringing this new Complicité show to life.

John Berger’s insistence on attention feels newly necessary and collectively, this creative team are exploring how to remain human in the face of violence, how to keep faith with the dead, how to look without turning away, and how to act when answers are no longer enough.

Questions for John premieres Théâtre de Vidy, Switzerland 31 Oct - 8 Nov.
🎟 www.vidy.ch/fr/evenement/simon-mcburney-questions-for-john
Touring the UK and Europe in 2027. More dates to be announced.

A Complicité co-production with Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Edinburgh International Festival, Les Nuits de Fourvière, festival international de la métropole de Lyon, MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis and Les Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon, in association with the Barbican, London.

📷 Camilla Adams

22/09/2026

Questions for John rehearsals have officially begun!

This Monday, Simon McBurney and members of the creative team started rehearsals, ahead of the premiere at Théâtre de Vidy, Switzerland at the end of October.

John Berger and Simon McBurney conversed, collaborated, freely supported and intimately shared their collective processes for 25 years, from 1992 to 2017. Questions for John holds the echoes of that relationship while asking the most urgent questions about how, or if, we can respond to the events of our time. Events that mean, inevitably, we have questions we long to be answered, but which are perhaps unanswerable.

31 Oct - 8 Nov.
🎟 vidy.ch/fr/evenement/simon-mcburney-questions-for-john
Touring the UK and Europe in 2027. More dates to be announced.

A Complicité co-production with Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Edinburgh International Festival, Les Nuits de Fourvière, festival international de la métropole de Lyon, MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis and Les Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon, in association with the Barbican, London.

19/09/2026

Yesterday marked four years since we lost Complicité co-founder Marcello Magni.

Here is a message from Simon and all at Complicité:

“Yesterday, as all days, all the Campagni of Complicité held our beloved Marcello Magni, founder member of the company in 1983, genius of improvisation, the prat fall, the step slip, the trip, the feint, the stumble, the gag, the prop, the entrance, the exit, the laugh, the mask, the half mask, the dance, the lazzi, the swerve, the build up, the count down, master of the mop and bucket… we hold him very very close…
With Kathryn his beloved…
… we miss him always… in all ways…”

📷 Put It On Your Head, 1983

18/09/2026

In just over a month, Questions for John will premiere at Théâtre de Vidy Switzerland. A piece of work that has been in development since last summer, following two work-in-progress performances at Edinburgh International Festival in 2025.

"‘I think you need to try to say the unsayable’ Did you say this? Did I imagine it? Fantasise it?"

We’re taking a look back to the beginnings of this new solo show from our Artistic Director Simon McBurney. Ahead of the scratch performances in Edinburgh last year, Simon wrote down some of his thoughts: about putting the fragments of this piece together in just 3 days, the challenge of creating something that speaks to his friendship with John Berger, and how this relationship may hold the key to finding the words to express what feels impossible, yet absolutely necessary.

Read more: complicite.org/news/saying-the-unsayable-making-questions-for-john

31 Oct - 8 Nov.
🎟 vidy.ch/fr/evenement/simon-mcburney-questions-for-john
Touring the UK and Europe in 2027. More dates to be announced.

A Complicité co-production with Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Edinburgh International Festival, Les Nuits de Fourvière, festival international de la métropole de Lyon, MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis and Les Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon, in association with the Barbican, London.

📷 Andrew Perry

12/08/2026

In Edinburgh this summer? You can see a screening of Can I Live? at on Tuesday 25 August, 6.30pm.

Can I live? is a vital digital performance about the climate catastrophe conceived, written and performed by BAFTA-nominated actor and activist who shares his personal journey into the biggest challenge of our times.

Co-presented with and in association with Little Animals, running from Tue 18 - Sun 30 Aug at the . There will be an introduction before the screening.

See https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/movie/can-i-live-intro/ for tickets and info.

07/08/2026

🚨Last chance to apply for our Kneehigh x Complicité: The Conditions for Creativity workshop before the deadline on Monday 10 August!

The workshop will be at the Kneehigh Barns, led by Mike Shepherd (founder of Kneehigh) and Catherine Alexander (Complicité Associate).

Over four days, the Kneehigh Barns and Complicité will host an intimate group of 12 creative practitioners who will come together to explore the conditions that allow creativity to emerge – in their own work and in the work of others. We invite artists who believe teaching, facilitating groups and holding space are creative acts; not just a small part of their artistic practice but integral to it.

The Kneehigh Barns are a special place.

They are situated at the top of a hill in a spectacular seascape, with a distant horizon, a beach and endless cliff paths in an unspoilt part of the south Cornish coast. The Barns are the spiritual home of Kneehigh: the original church of the lost cause, which was what directors Emma Rice and Mike Shepherd secretly called Kneehigh. From this collection of farm buildings emerged more than seventy-five productions.

For more information visit https://www.complicite.org/workshops/kneehigh-x-complicite-the-conditions-for-creativity/

04/08/2026

Complicité’s practice lies in devising, collaboration and working with and from the body, fuelled by a spirit of playfulness, risk taking and a willingness to fail. Sharing this practice in our open workshops is an integral part of what we do.

In collaboration with Kneehigh, applications for our next workshop; Kneehigh x Complicité: The Conditions for Creativity close on Monday 10 August, 10am.

A workshop at the Kneehigh Barns led by Mike Shepherd (founder of Kneehigh) and Catherine Alexander (Complicité Associate).

Over four days, the Kneehigh Barns and Complicité are hosting an intimate group of 12 creative practitioners who will come together to explore the conditions that allow creativity to emerge – in their own work and in the work of others. We invite artists who believe teaching, facilitating groups and holding space are creative acts; not just a small part of their artistic practice but integral to it.

For more information, see https://www.complicite.org/workshops/kneehigh-x-complicite-the-conditions-for-creativity/

🎥 TEAfilms Ltd

31/07/2026

At the start of July, we ran an open workshop: Storytelling with Objects - led by Complicité Associate Josie Daxter. Drawing on the ways in which objects inspire, facilitate and elevate storytelling in Complicité’s creation process.

Two workshop opportunities are open now:

The Masks of the Jacques Lecoq School: Toward the structures of play
To celebrate its 70th anniversary, the Jacques Lecoq School (École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq), in partnership with Complicité, is offering a unique week-long masterclass for theatre professionals.

Applications close Monday 3 August, 9am.

Kneehigh x Complicité: The Conditions for Creativity
A workshop at the Kneehigh Barns led by Mike Shepherd (founder of Kneehigh) and Catherine Alexander (Complicité Associate). For artists who believe teaching, facilitating groups and holding space are creative acts; not just a small part of their artistic practice but integral to it.

Applications close Monday 10 August, 10am.

For more information, see https://www.complicite.org/working-with-artists/open-workshops/

🎥 TEAfilms Ltd

Address

Studio 15, Jolt Studios, 27 St. Aldate Street
Gloucester
GL11RP

Telephone

+442074857700

Website

http://www.complicite.org/

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