complicite
Complicité (Founded 1983) is a devising theatre group known for their physical theatre style, blending movement, text, music, technology and design to create deeply imaginative, multilayered performances
Simon McBurney has played a huge role in shaping the company's style — he's deeply interested in how theatre can explore memory, imagination, and the ways we perceive reality.
main characteristics include:
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Physical Storytelling: They rely heavily on physical movement and gesture to tell the story, sometimes more than words.
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Ensemble Work: Performances are highly collaborative — there's a strong focus on the company moving and working as one body, like a "hive mind."
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Minimal Set, Maximum Imagination: Often, the stage might look simple or bare, but the actors use their bodies and a few key props to create whole worlds. Audiences are asked to imagine a lot.
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Integration of Technology: They creatively use soundscapes, projections, video, and lighting. Technology is not just decoration — it's part of the storytelling.
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Multilingual / Multicultural: Some pieces use multiple languages and explore global or multicultural themes, reflecting the diversity of their ensemble and the stories they tell.
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Playfulness and Seriousness: Even when dealing with serious themes (like death, loss, war), their work often has a sense of play, experimentation, and magic.
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Exploring the Mind and Memory: Many productions delve into how people remember, dream, and think, rather than sticking to straightforward narratives.
idea of catharsis, audience having a collective experience of what they have lived through. invoking memory from your past creating it a lot more memorable. "All memories are told in first person", creates stronger relation creates difference from storytelling. Heavy focus on the audience. the audience is just as important as the director
Heavily multimedia, including projections and puppets, evolution of their work comes from their initial performances on the street, sparking creativity
It is all about the human condition and try to present this in different ways.
Complicite Styles and Non-Negotiables:
- Visual Imagery/Digital Technology (projections, microphones etc)
- Puppetry
- Physical Theatre
- Rich Characters
- Storytelling
- Breaking the fourth wall/Direct Address
- Overlapping Sounds (live music, pre-recorded sounds)
- Comedy/Le Jeu
- One pivotel set item that is multi-functional
- Choral work
- Mime like and elite sport
- Levels of tension
- Aspect of memory
- the theme should get the audience to reflect and think
"In the end you are just storytellers" ~ Simon McBurney
Each Complicite production is different to the next, which can make it hard to understand their style. One of their key beliefs is to embrace the devising process in a collaborative way, allowing for a multitude of voices. the beauty of the work means that you start from anywhere, from drama games to text and movement and start to vary ways what you have made is performed.
Binaural Sounds:
Binaural sound makes you feel as though you are there, using two microphones to project sound made on stage and pre-recorded in the audiences ears. Complicite used this technique in their production 'The Encounter' to make the audience feel like they were right there with the character in the Amazon rainforest, hearing every tiny sound around them.
Influences of Complicite:
- John Bergers' 'Way of Seeing':
His work discusses perceptions and how we look at artefacts, art and life. it is the key foundation of how Simon approaches devising, looking at alternatives views and the world we actually live in.
- Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999):
trained simon McBurney at Ecole Internationale de Theatre focusing on mime, movement and physical theatre, which is at the heart of physical performances.
- Commedia Dell' Arte:
Elements are shown in performances as the company play on stock characters, improvisation and physical comedy.
- Philippe Gaulier:
'The Buffon' (born 1943) and the idea of clowning, was one of the companies earliest influences . It is worth putting a Bouffon into some of your performances to add elements of comedy, but also adds elements of the grotesque and commentary on societal norms and taboos.
- Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956):
A german playwright, poet and theatre director, known for developing the concept of Epic Theatre. This style of theatre encourages to audiences to think critically rather than becoming emotionally absorbed in the narrative. Brecht aimed to provoke thought and inspire social change by using techniques like breaking the fourth wall, direct address, and using songs and projections to comment on the action. You can see how this work heavily inspired Complicite's work.
Complicite Workshop:
on Wednesday 10th of September Bronya, who works for complicite came and gave us a workshop on complicite and its style and techniques.
we began by learning about warm ups that complicite use, for example the game "the sun shines on me when..." the purpose of these warm ups were to raise our energy and to get blood flowing due to the physical and high energy performance complicite put on. but it furthered showed how even these warm ups and "playing around" can lead to pieces of theatre by changes in tension and developing relationships. following this we walked around the theatre and began working as an ensemble, similarly to a Greek chorus, in which we would walk and when Bronya clapped we would stop and start in unison, when we were watching other groups walking around we were asked to look for where our eyes were drawn, and we saw again how even though people were walking around a space our brains created this kind of story and relationships between two nameless characters. we also used the bamboo exercise, which our group had previously used and implemented into our piece, however in difference, rather than focusing on the people, Bronya told us to focus on the sticks themselves which i found challenging due to my eyes being drawn to the people holding the sticks, how they were holding them etc. finally we spent time looking at tension, as complicite stems from lecoq who focused heavily on tensions. we looked at internal and external and learnt how different tension levels can portray different emotions and characteristics to the audience.
