Complicité is a British theatre company founded in 1983 by Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden, Marcello Magni and Fiona Gordon. Its original name was Théâtre de Complicité. The company is based in London and uses extreme movement to represent their work, with surrealist imagery. Its work has been influenced by Jacques Lecoq. The company produced their first performance in 1983. In 1985 they won the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Their productions often involve technology such as projection and cameras, and cover serious themes.
They describe the main principles of their work as "seeing what is most alive, integrating text, music, image and action to create surprising, disruptive theatre".
The company's lineup changes frequently, though McBurney continues to be the artistic director. Complicité is currently more active as an international touring company than within the United Kingdom. The Company is based in London but tours the UK and internationally.
Major productions
Major productions include The Master and Margarita (2011/12), A Dog's Heart (2010) with De Nederlandse Opera and English National Opera, Endgame (2009), Shun-kin (2008), A Disappearing Number (2007), Measure for Measure (2004), The Elephant Vanishes (2003, 2004) (performed in Japanese, adapted from the work of the writer Haruki Murakami), The Noise of Time (2000) (about the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich, title from the 1925 memoir and collected essays by the poet Osip Mandelstam, published in English in 1993); Mnemonic (1999); and The Street of Crocodiles (1992) (inspired by the life and works of Bruno Schulz).
The Master and Margarita, an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, sold out its run at The Barbican, London in March/April 2012 and toured Europe in 2012. In 2010 A Disappearing Number (2010, 2008, 2007) which played at the Novello Theatre, Barbican Theatre and Theatre Royal, Plymouth, is a play about the mathematicians Ramanujan and G. H. Hardy, the study of pure mathematics, the concepts of infinity and string theory. It focuses on our "relentless compulsion to understand". The music was written by Nitin Sawhney and the dramaturge was Ben Power. The play won many awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award 2008 for Best New Play. It was produced at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City in 2010 and toured to Mumbai and Hyderabad. In 2010 it was broadcast to over 300 cinema screens worldwide as part of NT Live.
Shun-kin (2008), performed in Japanese, was adapted from Junichiro Tanizaki. It was first performed in Tokyo (February 2008) and then toured to London. It was revived in Tokyo in March 2009 and in London, Paris, Tokyo and Taipei in 2010.