Complicite

Complicite: An ever changing company of devising

From the Complicite website (Complicite.org)

• “The only aspect of the company that has stayed the same throughout it’s history is that everything changes”
• There are four aspects that have remained more or less constant with the company:

1.The principle of working collaboratively

2.The designers of the piece are involved right from the start

3.There is a strong emphasis on the body, even if working from an existing play, and this leads to the inclusion of many games, physical exploration, and improvisation in rehearsals.

4. A large commitment is made to research and background work.

• The company uses a range of techniques including neutral mask, clowning, storytelling, gameplay, as well as multiple technologies, such as projection and camera, to explore lyrical and philosophical contemplation of serious themes. 

From On Directing (2002) by Simon McBurney (Co-founder & artistic director)

• Rehearsals include large amounts of play; chaos; pleasure-full yet with a turbulent forward momentum. 
• Usually begins with a piece of text: text can include a visual, text of action, musical piece, or the conventional form of text including a plot and characters.
• “What people DO must be as clear as what what they SAY”
• Example: In The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol there is a scene in which Jean and Lucie make love in a barn. After a little contemplation and a lot of play, the group came up with the idea of having the love making represented through the explosion of the space and the movement of objects.
• “A Piece of theatre is, ultimately, in the hands of those who are performing it.”
• “. . . as an actor, you have to feel that you possess the piece. And to possess the piece you have to be a part of its creation. Involved intimately in the process of its making.”

From Why I go to the Theatre by Lyn Gardner (Guardian Theatre critic)

• In 1983 Britain, Simon McBurney joined Annabel Arden, Jaques Lecoq, Marcello Magni, and Fiona Gordon and devised Complicite’s first piece Put it on Your Head
• “What it is impossible to do is say what makes Complicite itself
• The company has no permanent building and no permanent company staff
• The original intention behind it was to put something new out there and disrupt the spectacle of British Theatre
• They intended to really embrace otherness by taking the marginalized and dispossessed and placing them in the centre in a surreal way.
• To Complicite, a company is not just work, it represents a community and a family
• The actors involved always have to be ready to take risks, be physically intimate, and mentally couageous
• Their pieces are in a constant state of development; even in the final performance new discoveries are being made.

Sections from the interview shown in class:

2:10-3:22

3:40-4:25

Complicite videos

ENSEMBLE WORK from COMPLICITE.ORG

> Exercises: 

Play co-operation games, particularly those in which there 

are physical problems to be solved. These are crucial for 

building a sense of ensemble. 

1. In groups of five or more, move to the four corners of the 

room. Get the participants in each group to knot themselves 

up in a ridiculous position. For example, they must all hold 

one individual's ankles and at the same time link arms with a 

neighbour. Then, without breaking their position and 

contact, they must move to the opposite corner of the room. 

2. Cross the room without losing physical contact with the group, 

but this time only one person is allowed to move at a time. 

3. Cross the room with two people not being allowed to touch 

the ground and with the rest of the group not using their 

arms to carry these individuals. 

4. Move together as a group without touching, so that from 

the outside you can't tell who's leading. 

5. Simply ask the group to walk in space. Frequently the 

group ends up walking in a circle, or dispersing as two 

individuals take different decisions simultaneously. 

It is important that the group should move naturally, not in a 

choreographed line or holding hands. They should begin to 

sense the other participants' movements: to listen to 

each other and to anticipate how they want to move as 

a group. 

> Questions 

1. How easy is it for the group to take a decision to 

change speed or direction? When is the group united? 

Does one person take the lead all the time? 

2. When a good sense of ensemble has been established 

ask the group to take on specific characteristics. Can 

they move like chickens, cows or custard? Does this 

unite or disperse the group?

LANGUAGE OF MOVEMENT

> Photos and paintings 

This is the next step to take with this series of 

explorations. Finding the dynamics of movement of a 

photograph or painting is more complicated, partly 

because it is a static representation of something moving, 

and partly because there are many elements and 

materials contained within one picture. This really 

requires imagination on the part of the students and can 

lead towards developing quite complex movement 

sequences. 

1. Ask your students to find the dynamics of movement 

in photographs and paintings. 

2. With students in groups of five or six choose a 

painting or photograph and ask them to prepare a series 

of movements which they think expresses the dynamic of 

movement of that image. 

The aim is not to show what the photograph looks like 

but to express other things about it, including the 

atmosphere, weight, light, shadow, space and colour. 

3. Get the students to present their version of the 

painting or photograph to the other groups and then 

talk about what the spectators received. 

4. Finally show the spectators the original painting or 

photograph and talk about what was captured in the 

improvisation and what was lost. 

These exercises are central to devising because they 

explore the creation of a physical text. They transpose a 

frozen image or object into a series of movements which 

exist in time. They can be a useful way to start talking 

about dramatic construction in microcosm. In these tiny 

pieces of movement theatre you can see progression, 

contrast, variations of rhythm, surprises, transformations 

of space and even characters emerging. 

SPACE

> The space between performers 

1. Ask the students to get into pairs and to take one bamboo 

cane between them. They should hold the cane between their 

forefingers, exerting a little bit of pressure to keep the cane 

secure between their fingers. 

2. Ask the pairs to move about the space trying not to let the 

cane drop. Encourage the use of eye contact (but no talking) 

to communicate. 

3. As the participants begin to be more sensitive to each 

other encourage them to make their movements more daring. 

Is it possible to sit down, roll along the ground, change the 

speed or rhythm whilst still keeping the cane link? 

4. Gradually get a whole group of pairs working in the same 

space. Encourage the students to be sensitive to all the other 

pairs and to avoid clashes. 

5. Try to get all the pairs to create spaces, shapes and 

rhythms together as a group: to be daring, to weave in and 

out, under and over other people, to play together and be 

imaginative.