Making oyster costumes for her primary school classmates, giving Tilda Swinton her first job, and hiding behind gym mats when visiting Simon McBurney at Lecoq. All of this and more is discussed in this month’s episode of Regrets I’ve Had A Few, featuring acclaimed director, performer and co-founder of the International theatre company Complicité; Annabel Arden.

About Annabel Arden
Annabel Arden’s  career encompasses opera, theatre and broadcasting as well as acting and devising new work. In 1983 Annabel was a co-founder of the International theatre company Complicité. 

In 2020 Annabel made her debut at the Schaubühne, Berlin co-directing - with Simon McBurney - a new adaption of the Kleist novel Michael Kohlhaas and she stepped behind the camera to direct a film of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale for the Hallé Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder. Her most recent Opera production is Aïda for The Royal Danish Opera and she will direct a radical version of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman this winter at Opera North. 

In 2023 she was associate director for Omar Elerian’s As You Like It at the RSC and she was also associate for The Merchant of Venice or Merchant 36 starring Tracy Ann Oberman. 

Annabel teaches in a variety of contexts, for Complicite, in drama schools, Opera Houses and in the corporate sector. She studied at Cambridge and in Paris with Monika Pagneux, Philippe Gaulier and Jacques Lecoq.