In the world of contemporary theatre, Complicite stands alone.
The pioneering British company is a formidable collective of singularly talented writers and performers led by co-founder Simon McBurney. Their aim is simple: to buck the preconceptions associated with the dramatic arts by embracing a range of technological flourishes and onstage magic in order to mount works that defy belief and convention, transporting audiences to a place they may never have been before.
Actor Richard Katz has been lucky enough to be involved in the Complicite machine for over 20 years now, culminating in his starring role in the company’s upcoming production, The Encounter – a one-man play heading to Australia in the New Year as part of Sydney Festival. As Katz tells it, his relationship with the troupe has resulted in some of the most creatively fulfilling work of his life, and he describes Complicite’s renegade way of working as unlike anything else he has experienced.
“[Simon] likes to make things from nothing, and the company is one that thrives on the idea that you can make a story about whatever you want to make it about,” says Katz. “With Simon’s way of working there is no model; there are no rules. You have no idea what you’re doing on day one. It’s empty.”
And yet, despite all the great experiences Complicite has given him, Katz doesn’t sentimentalise the troupe’s creative process, and he admits that writing in such a manner comes with its fair share of anxiety. “Lots of my actor friends, because they know I’ve had a 20-year relationship with Simon, they say, ‘Oh, can you put me in touch with him?’” says Katz. “And I’ll say, ‘You know what, I don’t think you’d like it.’
“It’s not for everyone. When we opened Mnemonic [in 1999], we opened in a small town … and we still hadn’t written the ending. We were in a technical rehearsal, and in mid-afternoon someone said, ‘I’m not being funny. What the fuck’s the ending?’ And we had to hold the house – we went up an hour late – and we still hadn’t really rehearsed the ending because we’d only written it ten minutes before. And so that really isn’t for everyone. There were weeks and weeks of blind alleys.”
However, as far as Katz is concerned, that kind of anxiety is tempered by a deep sense of freedom – one that allowed Complicite to do something genuinely groundbreaking with The Encounter. “I don’t think Simon really knows what’s going on either when we’re writing at the beginning,” Katz laughs. “He doesn’t pre-judge it. He’s very good at knowing how to leave it, and he knows what it isn’t rather than what it is. So a lot of time you’ll show him stuff just to get it cut. Like, you’ll go, ‘How about this?’ And he’ll go, ‘No.’ ‘How about this?’ ‘No.’ And gradually the noes turn into yeses, because by working out what it isn’t, you work out what to put there instead. So it develops almost in opposition to itself, in a sense.”
A lot of that groping about in the creative dark also involves experimenting with a range of technological aides, gadgets that Complicite embraces in a way unlike most other contemporary theatre troupes. Just take the apparatus at play in The Encounter: the work relies heavily upon microphone technology in order to tell the story of its hero, the National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre. Audience members will be provided with headphones upon entering the theatre, allowing Katz and McBurney to play around with sound in a way they simply couldn’t otherwise.
“The whole opening of the show, we talk about how people confuse fiction and reality,” says Katz. “We’re not trying to hide the artifice of the play. We literally come out and we say ‘hi’ and have a little conversation with the audience. We alert them to the fact that there’s some technology at play and we show them the microphones. We try to pick away at [reality] a little bit, because it’s nice for the audience to be a little bit tenderised.”
The Encounter has been ten years in gestation, with Katz revealing that McBurney has considered mounting the piece a number of times in the past. “I just don’t think he knew how the show would work, how it would look,” Katz says. “So we would do workshops and gradually he realised he wanted it to be a one-man show, and everything else would be in the mind of the audience. So gradually from 2008 onwards, we would attack it with a slew of workshops, and chip away at what it might look like.”
Ultimately, despite the slog that such a method of chipping away might involve, Katz has ultimate trust in his Complicite colleagues. After all, given the troupe’s track record, Katz’s belief in his collaborators isn’t a case of blind hope – the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
“Simon’s great skill is being the very poster boy for creative faith,” says Katz. “He has an incredible spirit and enthusiasm for the work, and the question he asks most in rehearsals is, ‘Is it good enough? Is what we’ve got currently good enough?’ And none of us are Shakespeare. So most of the time, when you ask that question, ‘Is it good enough?’ someone in the room can go, ‘Actually, there’s a hole there and there.’ It’s always growing.”
[The Encounter by Gianmarco Bresadola]
The Encounterruns Wednesday January 18 – Saturday January 28at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House,as part of Sydney Festival 2017.
