Complicité at Jack Studio Theatre Review
Alex Westbrook (Simon) and Victor Ciri (Benoit). Photo: Phoebe Dowling
This new play by Finn Lanchester (who also directs) is the debut production from his scorcher theatre company. It’s a comedy that promises “monkeys, nationalism, dissonance, and the end of the world”.
It follows a chance encounter between Simon, a primary school teacher who has handcuffed himself to a tree as part of a climate protest, and Benoit, a French oil drilling engineer who is drunk and desperate with nothing left to lose.
A clash of cultures, ideologies and personalities is a good starting point for a play, with potential for humour and high drama. And what better clash than an encounter between a climate activist and the very embodiment of “Big Oil”? It’s a strong idea but the execution – acting, direction and technical elements – is stronger than the material.
The set, designed by Klára Rychtarčiková, is a suitably dystopian urban landscape, with a stark looking tree (Lorenzo Rangoni) centre-stage. It’s late at night and the remnants of a climate protest are scattered everywhere – broken placards, posters, empty bottles and food packaging. The people who have left the scene may claim they want to save the planet, but they don’t want it enough to clear up after themselves.
As the play begins, Simon (Alex Westbrook) is handcuffed to the tree. He’s the very embodiment of beige, from his clothes to his awkward attempts at phone sex with a girl called Abi. As his “sexy wexy” talk gets ever more cringe-inducing, Benoit (Victor Ciri) swaggers into the scene, an arrogant corporate suit swigging from a bottle. Their initial conversation establishes the lack of common ground. It’s funny, fast-paced and does well to establish them as total opposites.
Westbrook and Ciri are very well cast – Simon is earnest if a little weak-willed and Benoit is full of Gallic charm that borders on smarm(!), seemingly toying with Simon for his own entertainment. Their interactions, conversation and movement around the stage all feels very natural, under Lanchester’s direction.
As their bantering descends into bickering and then physical fighting, the two men don’t seem particularly committed to the altercation, it’s all a little lacklustre and half-hearted – a good reflection on the personalities and views they’ve shared that show that despite their different stances on climate issues, neither of them really have particularly strong convictions. Benoit repeatedly compares humans to monkeys – just going through life’s motions without really thinking. And that’s very much the impression we get from their encounter.
As their back stories come out, there are more emotional reactions from the two men, lamenting lost loves and revealing a much more vulnerable side to them. We’ve finally reached something that does really affect them and they feel much more rounded and definitely human rather than monkeys. Although showing more sympathetic sides to their characters as they open up, they’re still not entirely likeable and it’s difficult to get past the fact that they’ve brought their situations on themselves.
The climax of the play takes quite a turn – the increasing jeopardy is met with a mix of desperation and resignation from our protagonists. It’s well staged and edge of the seat stuff. The lighting, again designed by Klára Rychtarčiková and sound (Elias Dani) is incredibly effective as we hurtle towards the ending.
If Complicité has a message, it’s a more subtle one than you might expect in a play focusing on climate activism. It’s more about apathy than action, and does that make you complicit in the very thing you claim to be against? Using comedy to get this across makes for an entertaining hour of theatre, but possibly misses an opportunity to make a stronger case for standing up for what you believe in.
Complicité is at the Jack Studio Theatre until Saturday 31st October 2026.
★★★★
Written by Penny for Theatre and Tonic, October 2026.