Annabel Arden

Director, actress and co-founder of the company Complicité. Her career as an independent director encompasses theatre, opera and broadcasting as well as devising new work. She has directed for Opera North, The English National Opera, The Royal National Theatre, Almeida Theatre and the BBC. In 1981 she left Cambridge University and went to train with Monika Pagneux and Philippe Gaulier in Paris. She then toured internationally with Neil Bartlett and the performance collective »1982«. In 1983, she joined forces with Simon McBurney and Marcello Magni to form Theatre de Complicité.

For the next fifteen years, Arden was a central figure in Theatre de Complicité; acting, directing and teaching. Her production of Dürrenmatt’s »The Visit« (1988-1990) was Theatre de Complicité’s first existing-text production and established their relationship with the National Theatre. She directed Complicité’s first Shakespeare »The Winter’s Tale«., with Annie Castledine. She acted in »The Street of Crocodiles« which toured the world over a period of seven years, and was artistic collaborator on »The three lives of Lucie Cabrol, out of a house walked a man«  and on »Mnemonic«. In 2013 she directed Complicité’s first family show »Lionboy«. She is planning the staging of »Aida« for the Royal Danish Opera in 2023.

Schaubühne

Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist, Direction: Simon McBurney (2020)