Complicité Masterclass
At Future Stage Symposium
As part of Future Stage Symposium, Theatre Works is proud to announce two intensive, week-long masterclasses with globally renowned theatre company Complicité.
International training and artistic exchange are vital to a healthy and ambitious performance ecology. They give artists the opportunity to encounter different methodologies, challenge established habits, expand their creative language and build connections beyond their immediate context. These masterclasses offer Australian artists a rare opportunity to work intensively with one of the world’s most influential theatre companies here in St Kilda.
Each week is a separate, self-contained masterclass. Due to the limited number of places available, participants may attend one week only and will not be permitted to enrol in both workshops.
WORKSHOP ONE
Monday 13 to Friday 17 July 2026
10.00 am to 5.00 pm daily
WORKSHOP TWO
Monday 20 to Friday 24 July 2026
10.00 am to 5.00 pm daily
LOCATION
Explosives Factory
St Kilda
COST
Full rate: $850
Discounted rate for Future Stage Symposium delegates: $600
MORE INFORMATION
Read below
Who Is It For?
The masterclasses are open to actors, directors, creators and performers at all levels of practice and experience.
Applications are welcome from early-career, mid-career and established practitioners. Applicants will be asked to identify their current career stage and provide a short biography outlining their practice and experience.
Places are limited and participation is by application. The selection process will seek to create a balanced group with a mix of disciplines, perspectives, backgrounds, career stages and levels of experience.
Applicants will be asked to nominate their preferred workshop week and indicate whether they are available for the alternate week. As each week is a separate workshop and places are strictly limited, successful applicants will only be offered a place in one of the two weeks.
Future Stage Symposium is Directed and Curated by Steven Mitchell Wright
& Created and Produced by Dianne Toulson
Scholarship Places
Two scholarship places are available in each workshop week.
The scholarships are intended to reduce financial barriers for early-career artists and artists from communities that have historically experienced barriers to accessing professional training and development, including First Nations, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, and culturally and linguistically diverse artists.
All applicants will complete the same application form. The form will include an option to indicate whether you would like to be considered for a scholarship place.
Applicants seeking a scholarship will not need to submit a separate application.
Workshop Content
This action-packed five day workshop led by Complicite Associate Eric Mallett, aims to instill a real understanding of play between actors and to develop over the five days a true ensemble spirit, capable of creating new and imaginative work. Inspired by Ecole Jacques Lecoq and experiences while devising with Complicité, we shall be exploring the fundamental ingredients for creative and physical storytelling including Lecoq movement and mime techniques, physical characters, exploring the use of space, playing with music, chorus work and how to create exciting and surprising scene transitions. As the week progresses it will lead to the creation of short pieces working in small groups on given themes ("autocours"), giving the opportunity for performance and feedback.
Teacher: Eric Mallett
Eric is an Associate Member of renowned theatre company Complicité. He has performed in many of their productions since 1988 which have played in London and toured nationally and internationally including Lionboy, The Street of Crocodiles, Mnemonic, The Visit, The Phantom Violin and The Lamentations of Thel.
Other theatre work includes playing Zazu for seven years in Disney’s West End hit musical The Lion King (directed by Julie Taymor), playing Dromio of Ephesus in RSC's The Comedy of Errors (Stratford-upon-Avon, UK and World Tour, directed by Tim Supple), playing Pinocchio in The Adventures of Pinocchio (Lyric Hammersmith, directed by Marcello Magni), Running Wild (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Jungle Book (Young Vic, directed by Tim Supple), The Miser (UK Tour and Young Vic, directed by Mike Alfreds), The Taming of the Shrew (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Gebb (Rainmaker Picture Story Theatre) and We’ve been had (Faceback Theatre Company).
Eric was Resident Director for Bleak Expectations in the West End at Criterion Theatre, and was also Movement Director for RSC's production of Spring Awakening and worked as Assistant Movement Director on the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony (directed by Danny Boyle). Eric was Associate Movement Director for Dutch National Opera’s production of A Dog’s Heart (directed by Simon McBurney). Eric has taught extensively for Complicité over the years, as well as giving masterclasses in Dubai, Australia, Malaysia and Japan. He also teaches at Drama Studio London as well as regularly directing their final year shows for both BA and MA students.
Eric trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris (1984-1986).
COMPLICITÉ
Complicité is an international touring theatre company led by Artistic Director and co-founder, Simon McBurney. Complicité creates work that strengthens human interconnection, using the complicity between performer and audience that is at the heart of the theatrical experience. The company works across art forms; believing theatre, opera, dance, film, radio, installation, publication and participatory arts can all be sites for the collective act of imagination.
Learning and engagement are central to their work and its award-winning creative engagement programme includes professional development, work in schools and colleges, and participatory projects with a range of communities.
Complicité’s recent work includes: the dance trilogy Figures in Extinction (in co-creation with Crystal Pite and co-produced by Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT)), the reimagined Mnemonic which played at the National Theatre in 2024, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Can I Live? and The Encounter, as well as The Dark is Rising; an audio drama for BBC World Service and BBC Sounds based on Susan Cooper’s cult novel and a production of Anne Carson’s one-act radio play I Don’t Do Innocents for The Paris Review.
Founded in 1983, they have won over 50 major theatre awards worldwide, and played in more than 40 countries.
SOCIAL HANDLES
Instagram - @complicitetheatre
YouTube - CompliciteCompany
Facebook - @TheatredeComplicite