887
Ex Machina / Robert Lepage
Dates
Prices
Location
Time & Date
Information
Tickets
Full price: 7, 12, 18, 25, 28 €
Reduced, Friend & Groups 5-9 people: 10, 14, 20, 22 €
Groups 10+ people: 9, 13, 18, 20 €
Νeighborhood residents: 7 €
People with disabilities & Unemployed: 5 € | Companions: 10 €
Group ticket reservations at groupsales@onassis.org
Duration
2 hours (no intermission)
Characterized as an ‘alchemist of the gaze’ and ‘director of illusion’, the important Canadian theatre creator Robert Lepage returns to the Onassis Stegi with his most autobiographical one-man show.
Robert Lepage (b. 1957) returns to the Onassis Stegi six years since "The Far Side of the Moon"; this semi-autobiographical, science-fiction elegy was the work with which Onassis Stegi introduced the great Canadian theatre creator to the Greek public. He returns with "887", a one-man show and his most autobiographical work to date.
A life that sounds like fiction, a peculiar family, and a difficult youth are the main themes that Lepage draws on in his autobiographical story-telling and dramaturgy, which he calls auto-fiction. Indeed no one in his hometown, Quebec, could have imagined that this shy and sad boy would become one of the most important artists of recent years, an ‘ambassador’ of the Canadian Avant Garde internationally.
The set is a polymorphous, revolving dollhouse. A model of the apartment block on 887 Murray Avenue in Quebec City where Lepage grew up, it is filled with miniatures of domestic appliances, as well as figures of family members and other residents. It is as if a magic chest is opened, through which this great story-teller, thinker and unique performer-narrator goes deep into the mysteries of existence: from childhood to theatre, and from the socio-political upheaval of the 1960s in Canada to the peculiar mechanisms of (individual and collective) memory. Props suddenly attain a ‘life’ of their own; a theatrical rite made up by the unexpected fusion of new media and puppet theatre.
Lyrical and pensive, and at times playful or melancholic, 887 is an existential scenic journey that seems to draw on the famous line by French philosopher Roland Barthes: ‘The only country we truly know is our childhood’.
Photo © Érick Labbé
Additionnal poem
"Speak White" © Michèle Lalonde 1968
Used with permission of Michèle Lalonde.
Additionnal images
"Photo Donald Gordon" (MSTC/CollectionCN:X-40842)
Used with permission of the Canada Science and Technology Museum
"View of the taking of Québec on 13th September 1759 (Hervey Smith 1797)"
Public domain
"James Murray" (unknown artist, 1770)
Public domain
"Portrait of Major-General James Wolfe" (1727-1759)
Attributed to Joseph Highmore
Public domain
Excerpts from the film "Hôtel Châteauused"
with the permission of the National Film Board of Canada
Excerpts from a film report "Le Samedi de la matraque"
used with the permission of Radio-Canada Archives
Images of John F. Kennedy assassination from Zapruder Film
© 1967 (Renewed 1995)
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
Additionnal musics
"Mer Morte"
Composers: Jean-Guy Cossette, Gilles Morissette
Éditions Densta and Macadam Cow-Girl
Performed by Arthur et les Jaguars
Used with permission of Disques Mérite
"Bang Bang" ("My baby shot me down")
Composer: Sonny Bono
Cotillon Music Inc and Chris-Marc Music
Performed by Nancy Sinatra
Used with permission of Boots Enterprises Inc.
"Bang, Bang" ("My baby shot me down")
Composer: Sonny Bono
Cotillon Music Inc and Chris-Marc Music
Performed by Claire Lepage
Used with permission of Disques Mérite
"Mood Indigo"
Composers: Edward Kennedy Ellington, Irving Mills, Albany Bigard
Performed by Henry Mancini and his Orchestra
℗ 1960, used with permision of SONY/ATV Music Publishing and Songwriters Guild of America for Indigo Mood
"Leavin's on your mind"
Composers: Michael Webb Pierce, Wayne P Walker
Universal songs of Polygram Intl Inc - Performed by Patsy Cline
Used with permission of Universal Music Publishing Canada
PARALLEL EVENT
Wednesday 25 October
After performance talk with Robert Lepage and the participants
Moderated by Katia Arfara, Artistic Director for Theatre and Dance at the Onassis Stegi
An Ex Machina production
Commissioned by
The Arts and Culture Program of the Toronto (TORONTO 2015 Pan Am) and Parapan Am Games
In co-production with
Le Lieu unique (Nantes), La Comète - Scène nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne (France), Edinburgh International Festival (Scotland), Århus Festuge (Aarhus, Denmark), Théâtre de la Ville-Paris (Paris), Festival d'Automne (Paris), Romaeuropa Festival 2015 (Rome), Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy (France), Ysarca Art Promotions - Pilar de Yzaguirre (Spain), Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon (Lyon, France), SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs, on the occasion of Simon Fraser University's 50th Anniversary (Vancouver, Canada), Le Théâtre français du Centre national des Arts d’Ottawa (Canada), Le Théâtre du Nouveau Monde Montréal (Canada), Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (Japan), Canadian Stage (Toronto, Canada), Théâtre du Trident (Québec, Canada), La Coursive, Scène nationaleà La Rochelle (France), Le Volcan, Scène nationale du Havre (France), The Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York), The Bergen International Festival (Norway), The Barbican (London), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Chekhov International Theatre Festival (Moscow), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, scène nationale (France), Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), Théâtre de Liège (Belgium)
Producer for Ex Machina
Michel Bernatchez (assisted by Vanessa Landry-Claverie and Valérie Lambert)
Associate Production - Europe and Japan
Epidemic (Richard Castelli
Assisted by
Chara Skiadelli, Florence Berthaud and Claire Dugot)
Associate Production - USA, Asia (except Japan), Australia, New Zealand
Menno Plukker Theatre Agent (Menno Plukker, assisted by Dominique Sarrazin and Isaïe Richard)
Ex Machina is funded by
The Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec's Arts and Literature Council and the City of Quebec
Credits
Written, designed, directed and performed by
Robert Lepage
Creative Direction and Design
Steve Blanchet
Dramaturg
Peder Bjurman
Translation
Vassilis Kimoulis
Assistant Director
Adèle Saint-Amand
Composer and Sound Designer
Jean-Sébastien Côté
Lighting Designer
Laurent Routhier
Image Designer
Félix Fradet-Faguy
Associate Set Designer
Sylvain Décarie
Associate Properties Designer
Ariane Sauvé
Associate Costumes Designer
Jeanne Lapierre
Production Manager
Marie-Pierre Gagné
Production Assistant
Véronique St-Jacques
Technical Director
Paul Bourque
Tour Manager
Samuel Sauvageau
Technical Director-Touring
Olivier Bourque
Stage Manager
Nadia Bélanger
Sound Manager
Olivier Marcil
Lighting Manager
Nicolas Boudreau
Video Manager
Dominique Hawry
Multimedia Integration
Nicolas Dostie
Costumes & Properties Manager
Isabel Poulin
Head Stagehand
Chloé Blanchet
Technical Consultants
Catherine Guay, Tobie Horswill
Acting Consultant - Creative Process
Reda Guerinik
Director's Agent
Lynda Beaulieu
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