Robert Lepage is a Canadian theatre director known for integrating new technologies into his productions. His shows feature movable scenic elements and projections that transform the stage space. In this document, Lepage discusses his creative process and the recurring themes and techniques in his work, such as the use of a "machine" as a dramatic, scenic, and acting element that undergoes metamorphoses mirroring those of the characters and story. Technology, multiculturalism, and creation as an ongoing work-in-progress are also addressed.

1. Anna Maria Monteverdi
Accademia di Belle Arti-Lecce-
Storia dello spettacolo
www.annamonteverdi.it
The Machinery of vision in the theatre of Robert Lepage

2. La tecnologia negli spettacoli di Lepage aumenta
l’umanità di una performance da vivo (Peter Brook

3. “The survival of the art of theatre depends on its capacity to
reinvent itself by embracing new tools and new languages.
In a way, innovators in both arts and sciences walk on
parallel paths: they have to keep their minds constantly open
to new possibilities as their imagination is the best
instrument to expand the limits of their fields.
WAGNER, THE RING+ Ouverture

4. The platform also has 24 movable planks attached to it that are
designed to transform into a staircase and wall in which computer-
generated images are projected. In addition, thanks to hydraulics,
automation and technicians, The Machine can transform into different
configurations

5. When the director of the Cirque du
Soleil asked me to collaborate with
them, he told me I could do what I
wanted but I had to necessarily
develop the action covering all
levels from floor to ceiling..
He told me that this imaginary
vertical line was to be my constant
reference. It made me realize one
important thing: the circus is
vertical, and when you work on a
circular space you necessarily need
also of verticality

7. VIDEO Jeux de cartes

8. I started Jeux des cartes aware
that it would be very problematic
to work in a circular space: to
find the level of acting, deciding
to play in front of only a part of
the public but necessarily from
behind to someone else
I really liked the idea of ​​the
circle, the fact that the viewer
sees the show and at the same
time see the other persons and
their reactions.
Thus you are aware of being
part of a kind of community.

10. GROWING UP TOUR, Peter Gabriel

11. Québec city, 1957. Famiglia mista:
anglofona e francofona.
Conservatoires d’arte dramatique,
specializz.a Parigi (Scuola di Alain
Knapp). Metodo mimico di J.Lecoq
Sttore e regista all’attività di Theatre
REPERE di J. Lessard fino al 1989
Fonda EX MACHINA
www.exmachina.qc.ca
EPIDEMIC
ROBERT LEPAGE

12. RSVP cycle di L. e A. Halprin> sistematizzazione del
processo creativo
R (Risorsa):S (score);V (Valut/azioni):P (Performance)
METODO EX MACHINA
Lepage riprende dal metodo REPERE IL RE
RE-Risorsa= Oggetto risorsa (germ du départ) è il punto di partenza. Un
elemento concreto, materiale, metonimico e metaforico insieme che si presta
a metamorfosi. (muro in Polygraphe; oblò in La face cachée de la lune,
macchina fotografica per Les sept branches de la riviére Ota, puzzle per Le
plaques tectoniques, un monolite per Elseneur
PROCESSO CREATIVO
•METODO DI J. LESSARD- THEATRE REPERE

14. THE SEVEN STREAMS OF THE RIVER OTA

15. 1642. Colonia Nuova Francia (commercio-
evangelizz). 1754-1763 Guerra dei sette anni:
guerra tra Francia e Gran Bretagna
(Conquista). Montréal cade nel 1760. L.
Groulx: “Con la Conquista la regione avrebbe
rinforzato il sentimento nazionale”.
1867 Nascita della Confederazione Canadese
1960: RIVOLUZIONE TRANQUILLA; 1968:
nasce il Parti Québecois: moti separatisti del
FLQ. “Negri bianchi d’America” (P. Vallières);
1970 crisi d’ottobre, uccisione diplomatico
britannico;1976: Parti Québecois al potere
con Lèvesque; Loi 101-Carta della lingua
del francese-Bilinguismo.
1980-1990 Referendum sull’indipendenza.
QUEBEC:La Questione Linguistica e Politica
Francia e Inghilterra

16. 887 (2015)

17. The dragon’s trilogy (1985)

18. In the beginning…
In the beginning there was nothing, or almost nothing.
Six actors (including the director), plus two set designers and a
producer, all seeking the road to the Orient.
In a wasteland turned into a parking lot, imagination and
memory began digging deep.
In the beginning there were three Chinatowns – one in Quebec
City one in Toronto and one the Vancouver.
There was the imaginary China of myth and cheap goods, of the
blue lotus, of Tao, taï chi, Chinese laundries, yin and yang,
rickshaws and « made in Hong Kong ».

19. There was the story of Aunt Marie-Paule who married a Chinese man,
and the parking lot.
In the beginning there were Françoise and Jeanne, twelve years old and
inseparable friends.
They played in the store with shoeboxes, making St. Joseph Street and its
boutiques come to life.
There was Lépine the undertaker and the barber shop belonging to
Jeanne’s father, where she spied Bédard and all that fascinating red hair,
and there was also old Mr. Wong’s laundry, where one chilly night a
certain William S. Crawford showed up, just off the boat England with
hopes of setting up shop in Quebec City.
Marie Gignac

20. The blue dragon-The sequel
Trailer
Mr. Lepage and his collaborators
''seek to create a theater where the
terrifying and incomprehensible
reality of our time is inseparably
linked to the insignificant details of
our everyday lives. .

21. La casa azul-Frida Kalho
(2002)

24. ANDERSEN PROJECT

25. ANDERSEN PROJECT
The trailer

26. ANDERSEN PROJECT

27. Rotorelief
Duchamp
LES AGUILLES ET OPIUM
Life and death of Miles Davis and Jacques Cocteau

28. LES AIGUILLES ET L’OPIUMGli aghi e l’oppio video

29. The new version
trailer

33. “I like to transform the scenic
environment by creating elements
that move and turn, on stage, in full
view of the audience. My main
visual signature as a designer can
be found in the way I sculpt the
space and keep it in motion.”
ELSENEUR (1995)

34. ELSENEUR (1995)
How would Shakespeare have
written Hamlet if modern
technology had been available?
He would probably not have
used the same narrative and
dramatic techniques.
In the modern world, Hamlet
would perhaps have been in a
hospital undergoing radiography
or a scan. And what would
happen if we could put Hamlet in
front of an X-ray camera ? What
would we see ?
These questions serve as the
starting point for the experience

35. Elsinore, a solo show is a sort of the
exploration of Hamlet’s mind: all the
characters are places in his mind: “The father
the ear, the mother the eyes, the actors the
mouth”.

36. I did it as a monologue, a kind of
dream memory of the entire play. I
restructured the text, beginning
seconds before Hamlet dies. So the
work is seen as a flashback, with
Hamlet speaking the text of
Ophelia, Gertrude and all the other
characters. The play really takes
place in Hamlet’s mind. It begins
with his last speech and ends with
his last speech.”
HAMLET a monologue, BOB WILSON, 1995

38. ELSINORE

40. Elsinore, a solo show is a sort of the
exploration of Hamlet’s mind: all the
characters are places in his mind: “The
father the ear, the mother the eyes, the
actors the mouth”.

41. HAMLET MOSCA 1913

43. The object of my invention is to provide a device which shall present
the aesthetic advantages of the plain curtain but shall further be
capable of a multitude of effects which although not intend to
produce an illusion shall nevertheless assist the imagination of the
spectator by suggestion. My invention consists in the use of a series
of double jointed folding screens standing on the stage and painted
n monochrome –preferable white or pale yellow. The screens may be
used as background and in addition to this use, may be so arranged
as to project into the foreground at various angles of perspective so
as to suggest various physical conditions such as, for example, the
corner of a street – or the interior of a building”. Documento
proveniente dalla Collezione Arnold Rood e pubblicato in occasione
della mostra Exploding Tradition: Gordon Craig 1872-1966
(Victoria & Albert Museum, Londra, 1998)
Gordon Craig (as Stage-manager),
24 gennaio del 1910, patent office,
the screen-patent 1771

45. THE SEVEN STREAMS OF THE RIVER OTA

47. LA FACE CACHEE DE LA LUNE

48. LA FACE CACHEE DE LA LUNE

50. TRAILER

51. FILM
LA FACE CACHEE’ DE LA LUNE

52. SCENA MINIMALISTA
MULTICULTURALISMO (Oriente e Occidente)
MULTILINGUISMO (Francese-inglese)
TEATRO DI LUCI E OMBRE-
INTEGRAZIONE TECNOESPRESSIVA-TECNOLOGIA A
TEATRO
TEATRO-CINEMA
ELEMENTI RICORRENTI
ELEMENTI E TEMATICHE RICORRENTI

53. PROCESSO DI CREAZIONE TEATRALE: MAI FINITO WORK IN
PROGRESS (Teatro degli anni 70)
PRIMATO DELLA PROCESSUALITA’ CREATIVA SULL’OPERA
SPETTACOLI CHE HANNO SUBITO VARIAZIONI NEL CORSO
DI ANNI- non per incompletezza: ogni versione è provvisoria.
 La stesura del testo significa morte dello spettacolo.
“Si scrive quando lo spettacolo non esiste più”
CREAZIONE INFINITA

54. MACCHINA: DRAMMATURGICA, SCENICA ATTORIALE
Integrazione tecnoespressiva di vari medium: cinema e video.
Prestiti linguistici (spazio-tempo filmico).
Meccanizzazione della scena come nel teatro rinascimentale; la
macchina è mossa a mano, i meccanismi sono a vista.
Attore diventa macchina dentro gli ingranaggi e la macchina
acquista i movimenti umani.
Macchina nelle sue metamorfosi anticipa quella dei personaggi: la
scena meccanica e video è doppio della trama e del personaggio
MACCHINA SCENICA

55. Teatro come veicolo di trasformazione: Teatro è un viaggio di
cui non si conosce la meta
Metamorfosi del personaggio (il personaggio matura
consapevolezza e coscienza).
 Metamorfosi della scena (Una scena semplificata che si
trasforma)
Metamorfosi dello spettacolo (spettacolo cambia forma negli
anni) anche grazie all’apporto del pubblico (prove aperte)
Metamorfosi dell’artista (Tematica autobiografica che esposta
aiuta a una terapia contro problematiche interiori).
TEATRO COME METAMORFOSI