(Clare Brennan’s article appeared in the Guardian, 8/23.)
Simon McBurney, founder of Complicite, and I both studied at L’École Jacques Lecoq in Paris. After leaving, we worked together on a couple of productions and, in the decades since, I have been interested to see how he has developed the skills we learned at the school. he In takes storytelling in impressive new directions.
On the stage is a table, packs of bottles of water, a box overflowing with celluloid strips, a circle of speakers, and a grey, geometric head resting on a stand. This last is a microphone that records in “so-called 3D”. Across the backs of our seats hang earphones to be put on – through these we will hear the entire performance delivered as an extraordinary world of sound that surrounds each one of us, retreats from us, whispers close in our ear, moves to one side or the other. Some of the sounds are created before our eyes by McBurney, playing with objects, voice, body, effects pedals; others are pre-recorded and are fed into the live performance by sound operators Helen Skiera and Ella Wahlström. This aural-physical combination achieves visceral intensities.
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/23/the-encounter-simon-mcburney-edinburgh-review-observer
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