Simon McBurney (LI 1971-75) – Telling Stories: Truth, lies and the death of compassion

Join Complicité’s Artistic Director Simon McBurney (LI 1971-75) and award-winning writers Karen Armstrong, Amin Maalouf and Esther Woolfson as they discuss stories: why we tell them, what they do, and, in particular, the story of how we got to where we are now.

We live in volcanic times. An era of division, noise and ever accelerating change. We are surrounded by more fiction than at any time in history or prehistory but we seem unable now to know which stories to believe in and which are lies.

Theatres are empty, concert halls silent and ten months on we are still in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than 1.34 million people on the planet, 53,000 of those in the UK. Not only have 53,000 people died, but we question our leadership, their capacity to listen. Sometimes, compassion itself seems to have died.

So, what is the place of the artist and art in this moment?

Join us as we delve into the past, unpick the present and gaze into an uncertain future.

“The future is written nowhere…you have to write it.” Amin Maalouf

Telling Stories: Truth, lies and the death of compassion
A conversation with Karen Armstrong, Amin Maalouf and Simon McBurney, hosted by Esther Woolfson
8 December 2020, 7.30pm (GMT)
Live streamed for FREE on Complicité’s YouTube channel