Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage, born in Québec City in 1957, is a magician of images, a multifaceted genius of theater who has been celebrated as a director of theater, film, and opera, as a dramatist and as a performer. His works have radically questioned traditional forms of theater, not least due to his integration of new technologies. In 1984, his theater piece Circulations went on tour in Canada, followed by The Dragons’ Trilogy (1985), Vinci (1986), Polygraph (1987) and Tectonic Plates (1988).
In 1994, Lepage founded the company Ex Machina, with which he staged Polygraph (1996), Nô (1997), Possible Worlds (2000) und The Far Side of the Moon (2003). With his team, he created Geometry of Miracles (1998), The Far Side of The Moon (2000), The Andersen Project (2005), Lipsynch (2007), and The Blue Dragon (2008).
Robert Lepage staged Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Tour in 2003 and the Growing Up Tour (2002). He also directed the Cirque du Soleil KÀ (2005) und TOTEM (2010). For the 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City in 2008, LePage and Ex Machina created their largest architectural project The Image Mill™.
Lepage’s opera debut was Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung (1993). This was followed by La Damnation de Faust in Japan (1999), Paris und New York. In 2005, he created 1984, based on George Orwell’s novel of the same name, under the musical direction of Lorin Maazel. The Rake’s Progress (2007) and The Nightingale and Other Short Fables (2009) were performed in Toronto, Aix-en-Provence, Lyon, Quebec City, and Amsterdam. His staging of Wagner’s Ring at the New York’s Metropolitan Opera received international acclaim, as did his 2012 production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Quebe City. With Playing Cards 1: SPADES, the second part of his tetralogy, Robert Lepage was a guest at Ruhrtriennale 2012.