Complicité
Being founded in 1983 by Annabel Arden, Fiona Gordon, Marcello Magni and Simon McBurney, Complicité is now led by Artistic Director Simon McBurney OBE. Influences of the company's style come primarily from the likes of Jacques Lecoq, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux. The main principles of their work can be described as "seeing what is most alive, integrating text, music, image and action to create surprising, disruptive theatre". Complicité is a devising theatre company.
Influences
In order for the company to have developed its definitive style, Complicité have taken inspiration from the works of many practitioners:
Philippe Gaulier
In his own work, and personal life, Gaulier has been and is described as 'the Clown of Theatre'. His works embody humorous and ruthlessly satirical presentation of political topics, aiming to gain a genuine connection with his audiences, and understanding natural human reactions to things. With embracing failure (or, 'the Flop') at the heart of his works.
Monika Pagneux
Pagneux, similarly to Lecoq, was all about all the elements, particularly physically and spiritually with the actors on stage, that came together to create a unique moment. This is significant when devising, but also in scripted works and improvisational methods. It is all about the process in Pagneux's work, the process and journey of an actors physical movement and embodiment of a character.
Jacques Lecoq
Commedia Dell'arte and various improvisation techniques captured Lecoq's approach to theatre entirely. As a practitioner, he was all about the actors on a stage interacting with each other as characters but also as actors, and felt that shared creativity, motivation and passion for a piece of theatre was integral in all aspects of theatre, the actors, creatives and the audience.
'Flop is the friend of the clown.'
'First we must see what we do and then find new possibilities and only then is the moment ours.'
'The body knows things, about which the mind is ignorant.'
Characteristics
- Breaking the Fourth Wall_ is often used in Complicité pieces in order to interact with the audience. A key value of their work is to leave their audience with a long lasting message, Breaking the Fourth Wall constantly captures an audience's attention when being addressed, making a message more likely to stick with someone.
- Sensory Stimulation_ whilst aiding in the longevity of messages and morals, stimulating an audience's senses also aids in the storytelling of a piece of theatre.
- Minimalist Staging_ allows the audience's imagination to fill some of the visual gaps of a story and or scene. It also subconsciously reverts their attention more onto the actors themselves, which could link back to Complicité's influencers, who all considered the relationship of all the people in the room involved in a theatrical performance.
- Fragmented Storytelling_ consists of two or more narratives and or motifs (that, usually, make a critique on society) being implied and presented all throughout a piece, commonly with a subtle or distinctive link. In the most effective cases, they may confront the audience, which also adds to Breaking the Fourth Wall and Sensory Stimulation of a piece.
- Highly Physical_ moments in a piece of theatre can aid in encapsulating and demonstrating the full emotion in a moment or character, with the actor visibly show attention to all movements and parts of their body.
- Multimedia + Technology_ for Complicité, soundscapes, on-stage videography, specials and more means of lighting and sound.
- The Seven Levels of Tension_ created by Jacques Lecoq are also frequently used by the company in pieces and the rehearsal process to understand motives behind certain decisions in a scene and or about a character.
Workshop
On Wednesday 10th September 2025, a member of Complicité, Bronya, came into school to conduct a workshop with us to aid in our understanding of the style and approaches to rehearsals and experimenting in devising that directors take when creating a Complicité performance. Going into the workshop, I had little familiarity with the style of Complicité, but was immediately inspired once we started conducting exercises.
Bronya first explained to us Complicité's high regard for the creativity and personal experiences of every actor on and offstage in a production, much like the approach of Monika Pagneux. So, we went through a series of exercises to become comfortable as a cohort (we were a group of Year 12 and Year 13s). This included becoming more comfortable with one another, much like the approach of Philippe Gaulier, to the point where we explored Lecoq's Seven Levels of Tension by quite literally tensing our bodies more and more as we ascended from and tension level of zero to a tension level of seven. We did this with the assistance of a partner, that drew our attention to every part of our bodies, in attempt to show us the perspective created at each level. Upon later discussion, we found that tension is created, yes through the actors' skills, but almost more importantly, through the atmosphere. Bronya taught us to use an analogy to compare our tension levels to when devising. For example, what painting utensils we would use at each tension level; a watercolour brush at level one, and a chainsaw at level seven.
After that, Bronya introduced us to objects in Complicité's work, in our case, bamboos. In pairs, our aim was to draw more attention to the movement and presence of the bamboo than ourselves, once again forcing us to consider every action we carried out, as well as those of our partner. By this point, we had been taught the importance of the awareness of other actors on the stage.
We then discussed and practiced what makes a scene more interesting when simply walking around the space in a group: levels, eye contact, gestures, facial expressions... a story emerged; different every time. The audience's reactions and feelings varied every time.
Upon leaving the workshop, I had learned that elements of theatre that one often overlooks, like natural reactions to things, and the techniques discussed earlier with Gaulier, Pagneux and Lecoq, are integral to a piece of theatre, therefore require attention, particularly during the devising process. One thing that Bronya said, however, that has really inspired and excited me for the A-Level Devising unit was, 'The transitions and empty space are equally and sometimes more important than a scene itself.' It is all about flow.