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Lepage, Robert

Internationally-renowned playwright/actor/director born in Quebec City, Quebec , December 12, 1957.

He was raised in a bilingual household with two older adopted siblings who were anglophone. He studied at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Québec before joining the Théâtre Repère , soon becoming its lead actor and then director. His first work for the company, Circulations (1984) toured nation-wide.

His productions from the start were marked by his bilingualism, his explorations into multimedia, his homosexuality, and an ongoing study of the act of creation itself. His works, like Vinci (which examines the life of Leonardo), Aiguilles et Opium (which scrutinizes Cocteau and Miles Davis), and his breakthrough success, La Trilogie des Dragons (1985-86) (a vast epic in English, French and Chinese which toured this country and Europe) reveal a vivid imagination, a love of startling imagery, and an experimentation with new technology. Sometimes theatrical form itself is called into question.

The Blue Dragon ( National Arts Centre 2009), written with Marie Michaud, and directed by Lepage, is a spinoff from The Dragon’s Trilogy, with the same central figure, an artist who re-surfaces in Shanghai 20 years later. It explores the dynamic paradox of modern China, rapidly reinventing itself, but still burdened by censorship and repression. Lepage and Michaud also act in the play, with Tai Wei Foo as the protagonist's lover.

Polygraph (with Marie Brassard) premiered in 1988 -- a metaphysical detective story, based on the murder of one of LePage's friends, and structured to suggest the many layers of truth and meaning inherent in human experience. Tectonic Plates (1988) envisions the collision of cultures and continents in terms of a large pool of water over which two grand pianos are suspended.

As his reputation grows so do his canvas and the works he undertakes. He presentation of a series of productions of Shakespeare throughout Europe, Japan and in the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques had critics arguing among themselves, but they transfixed audiences and made Lepage a giant of the international stage.

In 1989 he was appointed director of the National Arts Centre French-language theatre (he stayed until 1993), but he has also directed at the Canadian Opera Company, The National Theatre (London, England), The National Theatre (Munich), The Royal Dramatic Theatre (Stockholm). He has also stage directed a tour for rock star Peter Gabriel.

In 1996 The Seven Branches of the River Ota won the award for best Quebec production at the Masques Awards , and played at several subsequent festivals. In 1997 he devised a contemplative work on the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, entitled The Geometry of Miracles/La Géométrie des miracles, which toured internationally. In 1998 he created a 3D version of La Tempête/The Tempest and began work on Zulu Time which opened to mixed reviews in Geneva, and positive ones in Paris.

Lepage also directs operas, including Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung for the Canadian Opera Company, which toured to the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Geneva Opera, Melbourne, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Edinburgh International Festival.

His films include John Mighton 's Possible Worlds (1999) featuring Tom McCamus , Gabriel Gascon and Rick Miller .)

His company, Ex Machina, has renovated a fire station in Quebec City as a multidisciplinary arts centre that does research into theatre, opera, puppetry, dance and music. Its most recent creation, Lipsynch, developed over a period of several years, premiered at the Barbican Centre, London in September 2008. Duing its nine-hour duration, it follows nine characters across seventy years across the world, connecting the stories of disparate characters speaking in English, French, Spanish, and German. It explores the possibilities and limitations of the human voice and communication.

Lepage has said of the extended, free-wheeling process he uses to create his works, "I don't even know what I'm writing until the audience tells me." During a discussion session at London's National Theatre (January, 1997), when asked what he thought theatre was, he answered, " I always come back to the same old notion that it's a gathering, a meeting point. A gathering in the sense that a group of artists get together to tell a story, and also the collective audience. The audience in a theatre room is very different from the audience to a film, because they actually change everything on the stage by their energy. You can't do that to a TV screen."

Lepage's career has not been free of controversy. In 2001, it was revealed that he had cancelled a rare press conference, in which he was to discuss his participation in the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques (now Festival TransAmériques ), because three critics on his blacklist (notably Robert Lévesque ) were planning to attend.

He is a recipient of a Governor General's Award . In November 2001, he received the London Evening Standard Award for his production of La Face cachée de la lune.

Sources: Éve Dumas. "Robert Lepage est primé à Londres," Le Devoir, Montreal, 28 Nov 2001; Elizabeth Renzetti. "Lepage's nine-hour voice message," The Globe and Mail. Toronto, 6 Sept 2008.

Gaetan Charlesbois and Anne Nothof

Last updated 2010-02-02