Simon McBurney Brings 'Questions for John' to Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Honoring John Berger

Simon McBurney returns to Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne with "Questions for John (Complicité)," a solo stage work devoted to the late English writer John Berger, running from 31 October to 8 November 2026. The production is directed by Omar Elerian, with scenography by Tim Hatley and dramaturgy by Kirsty Housley and Max Porter. McBurney, founder of the anticonformist British company Complicité, previously triumphed at Vidy with The Encounter in 2015. He and Berger shared a close dialogue and collaboration spanning 25 years, from 1992 to 2017, across Berger's kitchen table in Haute-Savoie, McBurney's flat on Holloway Road, and rehearsal rooms throughout Europe. Their exchanges circled recurring questions: how to remain human amid violence, how to stay faithful to the memory of the dead, how to look without turning away, and how to act when answers no longer suffice. Their joint projects included Mnemonic, A Disappearing Number, and The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol, a stage adaptation of Berger's Into Their Labours. "Questions for John" asks what has become of the bonds that unite us, why we destroy what we love, and what art can do today. Berger's writing, the production suggests, is not a refuge from the world but a way of looking at it more honestly; his insistence on attention is framed as an act of resistance, especially amid war, ecological collapse, and political cruelty. After Lausanne, the piece tours in June 2027 to MC93 in Bobigny and then Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon.