COP26 Announces Touring Dates For CAN I LIVE?

Inspired by Fehinti Balogun's experiences in environmental activism, Can I Live? is a specially filmed performance prompting an urgent conversation about the lack of diversity at the heart of the British climate movement. The film has been selected to be screened as part of COP26's official programme, and will be included in environmental charity If Not Us Then Who?'s immersive multimedia IMAX experience (1st Nov) which seeks to highlight indigenous voices within climate justice. Following a series of digital tour dates, Can I Live? will also be screened in-person at Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts (3rd Nov) whilst COP26 takes place.

Balogun (I May Destroy You, Walden) is an actor, writer and activist, and now delivers his energising exploration of where the climate emergency and social justice meet. Using hip-hop, spoken word and theatre, it is a call-to-arms to anyone who may have felt excluded from activism or anyone curious about how to get involved. Telling the personal story of Fehinti's own journey into climate activism, and featuring a cast of his own family, Can I Live? demystifies activism and empowers the audience, passing them the baton.

Can I Live?, directed by Bush Theatre Associate Artistic Director Daniel Bailey (Blue/Orange, Concubine) and co-directed by Complicité's Simon McBurney (The Encounter, The Master and Margarita), goes on a confronting, and ultimately uplifting, journey to discover the global majority activists taking a stand. After watching the filmed performance, audiences will be invited to join discussions and think through the future of our planet, as well as being provided with routes into their own activism.

Can I Live? was shot in the Barbican Theatre by Create Anything, a film production company dedicated to the stories of the global majority, and is currently on a digital tour, hosted by venue websites across the UK.

Fehinti says: "I'm going to explain what climate emergency means to us practically - right now - from the perspective of a young Black man living in London. I want us to feel seen. To me it is resistance. It is activism.

In the show, I'm really focussed on speaking to the global majority community. I want to show them a reflection of themselves in this work. For a long time, I didn't hear anyone talk about climate crisis in a way that made sense to me and my experiences, and I think that is what excludes so many of us from the conversation. Yet, for many people the climate crisis is already a deadly situation. Often we don't make the connection between the colonial history of Britain and these climate extremes, or the continuation of that colonial mindset which makes it worse. Nor do we think about the thousands of immigrants who come to the UK to send money home to family struggling with climate crisis related issues: rebuilding, food, flooding. Can I Live? is about opening up the conversation, making the space for new people to be a part of it."

Director Daniel Bailey says: "Often we're asked to validate and quantify why making art is important, useful, valuable and relevant. Well this is why, we're trying to shift the collective mindset and the attitude towards climate crisis from our perspective as global majority artists, who want to live in a better world. So you know that means saaaauce?! And we get to the source all at the same time... Music from genres that birthed a new generation of musical artists, performance from the powerhouse that is Fehinti Balogun, animation, design, movement, sound, video and science all wrapped into one story with a side of plantin' or plantain (All pronunciation welcome). We want to invite you into our lives and your own lives because this impacts us all. We wanna dance with you and rock with you until we are all a part of the solution. For a long time this conversation has been colonised and the global majority are the ones who often bear the weight of outcomes and decisions made. Today we ask you to come and be a part of this, come roll with us and let's see how we can make this place feel like home again."

Fehinti Balogun is an actor, theatre-maker, and activist. As an actor he has worked in theatre, film, and television, with recent performances in BBC's award-winning TV drama I May Destroy You, ITV's Viewpoint and the original West End theatre production of Walden. Other projects include The Blue Door at Bath Theatre Royal; BBC Radio 4's retelling of Oliver Twist and the West End production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Alongside his acting career, Fehinti delivers talks on climate change aimed at a more rounded inclusion in the conversation. As a result of these talks Fehinti has toured around London and south England discussing climate change, taking part in international climate discussions, discovering and discussing the wider climate movement and its erased work.

Complicité is an international touring theatre company based in London, led by Artistic Director and Co-founder Simon McBurney OBE. Complicité creates work that strengthens human interconnection, using the complicity between performer and audience that is at the heart of the theatrical experience. Recent work includes Beware of Pity, The Encounter, The Master and Margarita, Shun-kin and A Disappearing Number. Founded in 1983, the Company has won over 50 major theatre awards worldwide.

Alongside Simon McBurney's work, the Company supports artists, including Fehinti Balogun, through the 'Developed with Complicité' strand. The Company is proactively responding to the climate and ecological emergency, and is a founder member of Culture Declares Emergency.

Can I Live? is a Complicité production in association with the Barbican, London, supported by Oxford Playhouse.

Learn more about the tour and purchase tickets at https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en.

Tour Dates:

18 October, 7.30pm - 24 October, 11.59pm

Cambridge Junction

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Book tickets: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/can_i_live_complicite_cambridge_junction

Online workshop: Thursday 21 Oct, 8.45pm

Book a free place: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/online_workshop_can_i_live

25 October, 7.30pm - 31 October, 11.59pm

ACCA Brighton

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Book tickets: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/can_i_live_at_attenborough_centre_for_the_creative_arts_acca_brighton_online

Online workshop: Thursday 28 Oct, 8.45pm

Book a free place: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/online_workshop__can_i_live

1 - 12 November

Barbican Centre

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Book tickets: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/complicite-fehinti-balogun-can-i-live

Online discussion: Thursday 11 Nov, 8.45pm

Book a free place: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/online_discussion_can_i_live_barbican

15 November, 7.30pm - 21 November, 11.59pm

Theatre Royal Plymouth

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Book tickets: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/can_i_live_complicite_theatre_royal_plymouth

Online workshop: Thursday 18 Nov, 8.45pm

Book a free place: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/online_workshop_can_i_live_trp

22 November, 7.30pm - 28 November, 11.59pm

Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Book tickets: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/can_i_live_complicite_lighthouse_poole

Online workshop: Thursday 25 Nov, 8.45pm

Book a free place: https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/online_workshop_can_i_live_lighthouse_poole

Complicité COP26 presence

1 November - 'Can I Live?'
In-person screening - official COP26 programme

IMAX, Glasgow Science Centre

Screening and discussions as part of COP26 official selection: 5pm - 9pm

https://ukcop26.org/events/our-village-community-corner-organised-by-if-not-us-then-who/

2 November - 'What does it mean to belong?'
In-person discussion

Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts

Screening and discussions: 7 - 10pm

https://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/our-village-what-does-it-mean-to-belong

3 November - 'Can I Live?'
In-person screening

Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts

Screening and discussions: 7 - 10pm

Book a free ticket: https://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/our-village-can-i-live

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