Three new shows, opening and touring in 2027
Today we announce a brand-new collaboration; between Complicité, V (formerly known as Eve Ensler, the Tony and Obie-award winning writer of The Vagina Monologues) and the Royal Court Theatre.
Since 2024, we have been in conversation with V about how we might bring her extraordinary autobiographical novel The Apology to life on stage.
After years of questioning, exploration and development, we are thrilled to be presenting it at the Royal Court next year. It feels like the perfect home for this groundbreaking piece, as a place for writers and artists to be bold, daring and shake the foundations of what we know and understand. And rebuild something that attempts to shift our perspective.
The Apology is an audacious act of theatrical imagination, a ritual in which V conjures her dead father to confront the abuse he inflicted on her as a child. To offer her the apology he never gave.
Starring stars Emmy Award-winner Tobias Menzies (The Crown) alongside V herself and a choral ensemble.
Complicité’s artistic director Simon McBurney (The Encounter, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Mnemonic) directs this world premiere, with set design by Es Devlin (The Master and Margarita, The Lehman Trilogy).
V said: “It’s a dream come true to have The Apology premiere at The Royal Court. It is a place I have long admired for birthing boundary-pushing luminous new work and supporting some of the most original, compelling theater artists in the world. It has been an amazing process working with the visionary Simon McBurney and the brilliant Tobias Menzies, transforming what was once a letter into a theatrical event. I sense we are onto something subversive, transformative, and ultimately liberating.”
Simon McBurney said: “In The Apology, V does something extra-ordinary. She summons her dead father to speak the words he never spoke in life, forcing him to confront the truth of what he did. It is an astonishing act of courage and imagination. But it asks something of us, too. Can imagining what never happened change our relationship to what did? And if we can reimagine the past, might we transform the present, and make a different future possible?”
The Apology marks our return to the Royal Court, following our award-winning production of The Chairs in 1997, translated by Martin Crimp and starring Richard Briers and Geraldine McEwan, and 2017’s stage adaptation of Hollywood studio executive Robert Evans’s memoir The Kid Stays in the Picture.
Alongside The Apology, we are developing two other projects. Questions for John, a new solo show from Simon McBurney which reflects on his 25-year friendship and collaboration with the late writer, critic and storyteller John Berger while asking the most urgent questions of our time. It premieres at Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Switzerland this week before touring the UK and Europe in 2027.
In February next year Das blinde Licht / When We Cease to Understand the World, a stage adaptation of Benjamin Labatut’s novel of the same name, will open at the Schaubühne, Berlin. A German-language production directed by Simon McBurney and associate directed by Christina Deinsberger, associate director of Mnemonic and a former Mudlarks residency artist, it tells the stories of scientists and thinkers almost broken by the scale of their own discoveries, and by the catastrophic consequences of human ambition.
There are common threads across this work, most strikingly that of origins. Origins of violence, scientific discovery, relationships, war. Of what it means to be human. Of how we got to this very difficult place we find ourselves in.
And all this work, in different ways, seems to ask the same burning question: how might tracing these origins help us better understand, connect and progress forwards?
In 2027, we will open two shows, and tour another. This is no mean feat in today’s funding climate, with the arts and touring sectors particularly vulnerable due to constant cuts.
Despite this precarity, the scale and ambition of our work remains the same. We have always been driven to create work that strengthens human interconnection, and which constantly pushes the boundaries of theatrical form. In these times of crisis, work like this feels more urgent than ever and we are determined to continue to meet and inspire audiences across the globe.
We are grateful to our partners over the next year; Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, the Schaubühne and the Royal Court Theatre, as well as the many touring venues and co-producers we will work with, for sharing and supporting the ambition of this work.
If you would like to find out more about how you can further and more directly support the creation and touring of our productions, please get in touch.
Upcoming performances
Questions for John | 31 Oct – 8 Nov 2026
Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Switzerland
Touring the UK & Europe in 2027. Further dates to be announced shortly.
Das blinde Licht / When We Cease to Understand the World | Feb 2027
Schaubühne, Berlin
Public booking opens 4 January.
The Apology | 19 Mar – 24 Apr 2027
Royal Court Theatre, London
Public booking opens 4 November, midday.
Complicité supporters will gain early access to tickets this Friday 30 October. Find out more about becoming a Complicité supporter, and join today for priority booking across our work: www.complicite.org/support-us
You can become a Complicité member from £100 annually. Join today to be brought closer to the company, our influences and the creation of our work.