Simon McBurney

Simon McBurney – Life, Career, and Famous Quotations

Simon McBurney (born 1957) is a distinguished English actor, director, playwright, and founder of Complicité. This comprehensive article delves into his life, theatre philosophy, landmark works, and some of his most resonant quotes.

Introduction

Simon Montagu McBurney is one of the most inventive and boundary-pushing figures in modern theatre. His work blends physical theatre, multimedia, narrative experimentation, and social urgency. As a performer, director, and creator, McBurney has constantly challenged what theatre can be, making audiences collaborators in meaning. His reputation extends beyond the stage into film, opera, and immersive performance.

Early Life and Family

Simon McBurney was born on 25 August 1957 in Cambridge, England. His father, Charles McBurney, was an American archaeologist and academic, of Scottish descent. His mother, Anne Francis Edmondstone (née Charles), was a British secretary with English, Scottish, and Irish roots. He has a brother, Gerard McBurney, a composer and writer. His paternal great-grandfather was the surgeon Charles McBurney, known for defining “McBurney’s point” in anatomy.

McBurney studied English Literature at Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating in 1980. After Cambridge, he moved to Paris to train in theatre at the Jacques Lecoq Institute and with Philippe Gaulier.

Theatre Career & Complicité

Founding Complicité & Early Work

In 1983, McBurney co-founded Théâtre de Complicité (later simply Complicité) with Annabel Arden, Fiona Gordon, and Marcello Magni. Under McBurney’s artistic leadership, Complicité developed a signature approach combining physical theatre, multimedia, narrative fragmentation, and a poetic sense of space and sound.

Notable early productions include

• Street of Crocodiles (1992) (after Bruno Schulz)

• The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol (1994) (in collaboration with John Berger)

• Mnemonic (1999), exploring memory and identity — a critical success and frequently revived.

Another key work is A Disappearing Number (2007), a devised piece based on the collaboration between mathematicians Ramanujan and G. H. Hardy.

McBurney also directed The Encounter (2015), a solo play in which audience members wear headphones to immerse them in the voice and soundscape—a performance that blurs boundaries between performer, audience, and environment.

He has occasionally directed theatre outside Complicité, including The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and All My Sons in New York, and opera projects like Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Film, Television & Other Media

McBurney is also an active screen actor and contributor to film and television:

• He played Dr. Atticus Noyle in The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

• In The Last King of Scotland (2006), he portrayed British diplomat Nigel Stone

• He appears in The Golden Compass (2007), The Duchess (2008), Robin Hood (2010), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Magic in the Moonlight (2014), The Theory of Everything (2014), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), and Nosferatu (2024).

• On television, he is known for Cecil the choirmaster in The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2004)

• He appeared in Rev. (2010–2014) as Archdeacon Robert

• He voiced Kreacher in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010)

His screen work often complements his theatrical sensibility—favoring roles that offer complexity, presence, or understated tension.

Philosophy & Approach to Theatre

McBurney sees theatre as a collaborative imagination — a space where audience and performance interweave in the moment. As he has said:

“Ultimately, theatre takes place in the minds of the audience: they all imagine the same thing at the same time.”

He often frames theatre not as mere representation, but as a means to pierce illusion and reveal reality:

“Perhaps the function is … to show: ‘Hang on, this is real.’”

He is deeply interested in memory, perception, and the boundaries of identity, which recur in his works like Mnemonic and The Encounter.

He also emphasizes form following idea: the visual, the sound, the physical must emerge from the subject, not be imposed.

McBurney is not primarily a spectacle maker; rather, he views technology, multimedia, and design as tools to amplify ideas rather than dominate them.

In an interview, he remarked:

“I allow people to create, but I'm also marshalling everybody … it is very messy. From the mess, though, you refine what is there.”

That sense of messy collaboration underlying structure is central to Complicité’s work.

Recognition, Awards & Public Roles

• In 2005, McBurney was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama.

• 1997: Europe Prize Theatrical Realities awarded to Complicité under his direction.

• 1998: Laurence Olivier Award (for Best Choreography in The Caucasian Chalk Circle)

• 1999: Critics’ Circle Theatre Award (Best New Play for Mnemonic)

• He has been nominated for Tony Awards and other international awards for his direction and productions.

McBurney also serves as an Ambassador for Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights.

Famous Quotes by Simon McBurney

Here are several quotable passages from McBurney that capture his sensibility and rhetorical voice:

• “Ultimately, theatre takes place in the minds of the audience: they all imagine the same thing at the same time.”

• “Perhaps the function is to pierce through … and show reality … the function of art is to make things — to show: ‘Hang on, this is real.’”

• “I constantly want to know — what is a table, or what is a cat?”

• “In the theatre, we’re all charlatans and liars and scavengers and fly-by-nights.”

• “When the brain gets lost, it doesn’t stop working … it begins to speculate and guess, and that’s when things open up.”

• “The only reality of the theater exists in the mind of the audience.”

• “I don’t tend to get cast in the theatre much. … In films, I’m a nobody.”

• “For me, acting is like a holiday.”

• “Most of what we say about ourselves is a wonderful piece of storytelling.”

These reflect McBurney’s persistent engagement with question, uncertainty, and the participatory nature of performance.

Lessons from Simon McBurney

1. The audience is co-creator
   McBurney’s work reminds us that meaning in performance isn’t delivered; it’s awakened in the minds of spectators.

2. Form must emerge from idea
   Rather than dressing a show in technology or spectacle, McBurney methods suggest the visual, sonic, and spatial elements should arise organically from the subject.

3. Embrace uncertainty and mess
   His creative process often tolerates chaos, improvisation, and unexpected paths—trusting that structure and insight emerge from exploration.

4. Hybrid practice is strength
   McBurney’s fluid movement across theatre, film, opera, and performance shows how crossing media can enrich each medium.

5. Art carries moral urgency
   Whether in political themes or ecological consciousness, many of McBurney’s works invite audiences to engage ethically, not just artistically.

Conclusion

Simon McBurney is a rare artist whose breadth extends from the deeply personal to the globally resonant. His theatrical experiments, immersive performance techniques, and philosophical curiosity push the medium beyond spectacle into encounter. As an actor, director, and creator, he continues to redefine the boundaries of what theatre can be—and how it can shape how we see, listen, and think about the world.