Complicité Announce Fehinti Balogun's CAN I LIVE? UK Tour

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. 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 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. A full schedule of talks will be published nearer the time (details TBA).

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 will embark on a digital tour, hosted by venue websites, in the lead up to and finishing at COP26 international climate conference in Glasgow. As part of a programme of activity organised by the environmental charity If Not Us Then Who? the film will be screened at Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts whilst COP26 takes place. A full schedule of talks and screenings will be released nearer the time.

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 an activist. As an actor he trained at RADA and has worked in theatre, film and television, with recent performances in Walden directed by Ian Rickson on the West End, The Blue Door at Bath Theatre Royal; BBC Radio 4's retelling of Oliver Twist and the BBC HBO television drama I May Destroy You written by Michaela Cole. Alongside his acting career, he delivers talks on the climate emergency aimed at creating a more rounded and inclusive conversation. As a result of these talks, he has toured around London and south England discussing the climate emergency and taking part in international climate discussions.

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 at https://complicite.ticketco.events/uk/en

Tour Dates:

13 September, 7.30pm - 18 September, 11.59pm

Oxford Playhouse

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Watch-along and post-film conversation: Thursday 16 Sept, 7.30pm with post-film talk 8.45pm

https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/can-i-live

20 September, 7.30pm - 22 September, 11.59pm

Creative Folkestone Quarterhouse

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

https://www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/whats-on/can-i-live/

4 October, 7.30pm - 10 October, 11.59pm

Bristol Old Vic

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Watch-along and post-film conversation: Thursday 7 Oct, 7.30pm with post-film talk 8.45pm

https://bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/can-i-live

11 October, 7.30pm - 17 October, 11.59pm

HOME, Manchester (on sale 3 August 12 noon)

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Watch-along and post-film conversation: Thursday 14 Oct, 7.30pm with post-film talk 8.45pm

https://homemcr.org/production/can-i-live/

18 October, 7.30pm - 24 October, 11.59pm

Cambridge Junction

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Watch-along and post-film conversation: Thursday 21 Oct, 7.30pm with post-film talk 8.45pm

https://www.junction.co.uk/can-i-live

1 - 12 November

Barbican Centre (on sale 1 September)

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Watch-along and post-film conversation: Thursday 11 Nov, 7.30pm with post-film talk 8.45pm

15 November, 7.30pm - 21 November, 11.59pm

Theatre Royal Plymouth

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Watch-along and post-film conversation: Thursday 18 Nov, 7.30pm with post-film talk 8.45pm

https://theatreroyal.com/whats-on/can-i-live/

22 November, 7.30pm - 28 November, 11.59pm

Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts

PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE

Watch-along and post-film conversation: Thursday 25 Nov, 7.30pm with post-film talk 8.45pm

https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/whats-on/2021/can-i-live/

In-person screenings

1 - 12 November

COP 26 - Glasgow

Centre for Contemporary Arts

Presented by If Not Us Then Who?

A full schedule of talks and screenings will be released nearer the time.

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