COMPLICITE SEMINAR -Physical Theatre - Amy Taylor

Physical Theatre Performance

I will be presenting a seminar analyzing the role and influence that physical theatre company ‘Complicite’ have had on the Theatre and Physical Theatre world as a whole.

“Over the last 20 years I have seen thousands of productions in the theatre, but it is the images from Complicite shows that are branded on my brain.”

 -So wrote Lyn Gardner, theatre critic of the U.K.’s Guardian. Since Complicite’s establishment in 1983 many statements like this have been written about the work of Complicite. 

It is Complicite's use of powerful images, stylized sets, impressive movement, and ability to address topics of history, science, music and mathematics with a sense of wonder, that has given Complicite such a highly renowned name in the Theatre world, and have earned co-founder of the company Simon Mcburney and OBE in 2005 for “Services to Drama”

I’m going to look at what and who have influenced McBurney and Complicite in the creation of their groundbreaking work.

In a recent interview with co-founder Simon McBurney comments that one of the motivations behind Complicite was that they wanted to create theatre that they had not yet seen. Where did this original thinking originate?

McBurney studied english literature graduating in 1980. Then went onto France and trained for the theatre at the Jacques Lecoq Institute in Paris, where he met Annabel Arden and Marcello Magni, the fellow co-founders of Complicite. 

JACQUES LECOQ

CREATIVE FREEDOM

At Jacques Lecoq in Paris school of the legendary physical theatre actor and mime artist, they studied mime, improvisation, melodrama, comedia del arte, and Buffon. (buffoon is a term for someone who provides amusement through inappropriate appearance and/or behavior).

As students stayed with Lecoq's school longer, he accomplished this through teaching in the style of "via negativa," never telling the students how to do what was "right." The goal was to encourage the student to keep trying new avenues of creative expression.

This influence is seen heavily in the works of Complicite. There is an expressive creative freedom that runs through the company. The high level of originality in thier work that they create that could only happen in an environment where the collaborators can work with freedom from limits, where they feel that can do no wrong so are able to expand their limits in creative thought and expression. This ethos starts from the rehearsal room where McBurney says, “Nothing is off limits, except not turning up.”

"To mime is to literally embody and therefore understand better. A person who handles bricks all day long reaches a point where he no longer knows what he is handling. It has become an automatic part of his physical life. If he is asked to mime the object, he rediscovers the meaning of the object, its weight and volume. This has interesting consequences for our teaching method: miming is a way of rediscovering a thing with renewed freshness"

- A quote taken about attending the Jacques Lecoq Theatre School

Studying forms such as mime, improvisation, commedia dell’arte, melodrama, and Buffoon instilled a creative freedom in Lecoq’s students, which McBurney and Complicite continued with and made a pillar of their foundation. 

TOGETHERNESS ‘COMPLICITE’

Three of the principal skills that Lecoq encouraged in his students were,  

1. ‘Le jeu’ (playfulness)
2. ‘Disponsibilité’ (openness)  
3. ‘Complicité’ (togetherness). 

Training at Lecoq almost sounds like being at a children's playgroup where the children learn through playing, have fun and make friends, sharing sweets, and laughing at silly things. With playfulness being very high on the list of abilities. In fact at Lecoq selection for the second year was based mainly on the ability to play. Complicite’s approach to devising work is grounded heavily in this. They play many games within rehearsals, and also make up games. Playing games has many different beneficiary aspects to the creative process with an ensemble, from combating self consciousness to building team spirit and creating a connection throughout the group. And also addresses the competitive nature of the performers in a healthy way that can be used to gel rather than divide the group. Complicite being the end goal, establishing an ensemble that can play, be open and create together. 

“There is no Complicite method—what is essential is collaboration, and a turbulent forward momentum,” says McBurney

All the work that Complicite does in the rehearsal room leads towards the actors working together intuitively and instinctively. The Company are able to improvise their way seamlessly out of most situations without an audience realizing if anything out of the ordinary has happened.

‘Complicite’ being the actual name of the company signifies the influence Lecoq’s ethos of togetherness had onMcBurney and Complicite. 

INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE

“There I saw theatre from everywhere,” McBurney says.

Jacques Lecoq was an International Theatre school with students coming from all over the world, and where he was introduced up close and person to the world of International theatre. 

McBurney, acknowledges the influence of the Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold, who  was one of the most passionate advocates of Symbolism in theatre. He focused on developing skills from traditional, non-realistic theatrical styles, paying particular attention to the commedia dell’arte, Russian fairground plays, circus acts, and pantomime. Meyerhold’s acting technique had fundamental principles at odds with the American ‘method acting’ conception. Method acting melded the character with the actor's own personal memories to create the character’s internal motivation. Meyerhold connected psychological and physiological processes. He had actors focus on learning gestures and movements as a way of expressing emotion physically. 

McBurney also recognizes as a influence German dance-theatre director Pina Bausch. In 1972, Bausch started as artistic director of the Wuppertal Opera Ballet, which was later renamed as the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

The name "tanztheater" refers to a performance form that combines dance, speaking, singing and chanting, conventional theater and the use of props, set, and costumes in one amalgam. It is performed by trained dancers. Usually there is no narrative plot; instead, specific situations, fears, and human conflicts are presented. Audiences are stimulated to follow a train of thought or to reflect on what the tanztheater piece express. It has been described as a new twist on an old form: German Expressionism.

Roland Langer, "Compulsion and Restraint, Love and Angst", Dance Magazine 58, no. 6 (1984)

‘Café Müller’ in which dancers stumble around the stage crashing into tables and chairs, and ‘Rite of Spring’, where the stage was totally covered with soil epitomized Bausch’s unique style. A blend of movements, sounds, prominent stage sets, and cooperation with performers lead her to becoming a leading influence since the 1970s in the world of modern dance.

The influences of Meyerhold and Bausch can been seen heavily in the work of complicite today. From the collaboration between performers and the set to the symbolic images that continually amaze audiences. 

PROPS and STAGING

Books flap their pages and fly...

... a chair becomes a man

'What an extraordinary and thrilling production this is. It makes superb use of video, music and a succession of startling coups de théâtre to capture the book’s peculiarly addictive mixture of zaniness, passion and terror. A constantly daring and ambitious staging.' 

- Daily Telegraph

Complicite’s work is characteristically noted for their creative, original and captivating use of props and staging. Many memorable moments from Complicite’s work are those involving the innovative use of props, staging, lighting, and visual audio media. Reminiscent of the Pina Bausch Tanztheatre. “Books flap their pages and fly in The Street of Crocodiles, while in Mnemonic (1999), a chair becomes a man”. Although the company’s pieces always have a strong statement running through them, it’s the visual images they conjure up that define Complicite’s style.

INFLUENCED by Complicite

Physical theatre company ‘Idle Motion’ acknowledge the influence of complicite on their work. Using props as theatrical language is central to their shows. 

“Whenever we saw theatre where a prop was used not as you would expect, in a really surprising way, those were often our favorite bits of that show. So then we thought, let’s make an entire show using that as the basis” 

- See more at: http://www.ayoungertheatre.com/tag/complicite/#sthash.GdsZep4y.dpuf

“The only reason I've taken the job at the RSC is the belief that it's worth having a stab at imbuing the company with the kind of collaborative, sustained inquiry that marks out Complicite's work.”

-Michael Boyd

Artistic director of the RSC

“The most significant contribution they've made is to bring European influences into this country's theatre”

-Sir Richard Eyre

Theatre director and film-maker

“Complicite are Britain's only world-class theatre-making outfit. What they've done is to carve out a whole new area of possibility for theatremakers which wouldn't be an option if they hadn't charted that territory and broken down all sorts of preconceptions - largely about the relationship between movement and text.”

- Tom Morris

Artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre

Complicite’s influences are taken from the International world of performance, and fittingly their unique style of performance has influenced the theatre world globally.