A Long Conversation: Complicité and Edinburgh

This month Complicité returns to Edinburgh with two different but deeply connected projects: the Scottish premiere of Figures in Extinction, a co-production with Nederlands Dans Theater and a collaboration between our Artistic Director Simon McBurney, choreographer Crystal Pite and the extraordinary dancers of NDT 1, and Questions for John, a new work-in-progress conceived and performed by Simon. Both pieces are a continuation of a conversation that began over four decades ago in the early days of our collective, and our first appearance at Edinburgh.

1985, the Edinburgh Fringe. We brought A Minute Too Late and More Bigger Snacks Now, the latter of which won the Perrier Award for Best Comedy Act, much to our surprise. We were unknown, playing with a language, rhythm, physicality first encountered and studied together in Paris at École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Unbeknownst to us, it was the beginnings of a theatrical vocabulary that would become our own. 

But the Perrier Award was certainly a signal; something could happen here.

Over the following years, we returned to Edinburgh; in 1987 with Anything for a Quiet Life, 1989 with Ave Maria and The Visit and then, four years later, in 1993, we brought The Street of Crocodiles.

For us, the Edinburgh Fringe offered a space unlike any other. A place where form could be dismantled and rebuilt. Where theatre could be made from the ground up, with no assumptions. It was a time of risk, invention – and the accidental forging of our company.

The Street of Crocodiles was a significant moment for us. We became more widely known. But much stayed the same; we made work, we toured it around the world. And that same spirit and way of creating remained with us – risky, exciting, often beginning with a blank page and many ideas and threads that somehow came together, almost always at the last minute.

“I’m not quite sure what it is until I’ve made it. I don’t go, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this with it.’ It’s emerging, right now.” 

~ Simon McBurney

It took us over 20 years to return to Edinburgh, with a piece of work that was perfect to debut in this city where so much had begun for us.

2015 at the Edinburgh International Festival. The Encounter, a solo performance from Simon that marked another shift. Merging sound, story and technology, it was a form of storytelling that felt like new ground for us. And yet, that sense of play and collaboration with our audiences remained.

In 2019 we were back with I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole! and The Last of the Pelican Daughters, a co-production with A Wardrobe Ensemble and Royal & Derngate, Northampton, and a work-in-progress of Clint Dyer’s The Happy Tragedy of Being Woke.

And now, in 2025, we return again. Carrying the past with us, but very much grappling with the present. 

Figures in Extinction – a four-year cross-continental exchange between Simon, Crystal and the NDT 1 dancers which has led to the creation of a trilogy of works: [1.0] the list, [2.0] but then you come to the humans; [3.0] requiem. 

When Simon and Crystal first discovered each other’s work in 2016, they had been eager to work together and specifically, to make something centred on the climate emergency. How can artists meaningfully create in the face of mass destruction? There are no concrete answers in Figures in Extinction. Instead, an attempt to connect, to bridge the huge void between us; human to human, humans to the living world.

 “Straight away we decided we wanted to make something centred on the climate crisis.”

~ Crystal Pite

“Which is not separable from human crisis. We are all inescapably part of this living world.” 

 ~ Simon McBurney

A companion piece of sorts to Figures in Extinction in its continuation of asking questions in times of great uncertainty, Questions for John is a work-in-progress that, in many ways, represents what Complicité has always been: play and experimentation, trying things out and seeing what fits. It is a gathering of unresolved fragments, memories and stories inspired by the work of John Berger – writer, critic, storyteller and one of Complicité’s most important collaborators. 

It will not be finished. It is the start, the beginning of another conversation. For us, this is where theatre truly comes to life.

“To collaborate is to be willing to learn from others and to be open to change.” 

 ~ John Berger

Which brings us back to Edinburgh. To return to Edinburgh is to step into a shared space. Of memory and imagination. Of beginnings and risk. A city where Complicité has been shaped and reshaped, over and again, across decades. A city where we have always come to ask questions. 

In truth, we have never really sought to find the answers. So, we’ll just keep asking…