A leader in theatre production for a global community, Robert Lepage - actor, cineaste, and director - revolutionized the Toronto theatre scene from the 1980s onwards by challenging conventional notions of language, identity, and national belonging. Exploring Lepage’s twenty-five-year history on the Toronto stage, Jane Koustas analyzes his importance in the Canadian and international theatre scenes. Outlining the reasons behind Lepage’s success in Toronto, Koustas skilfully engages with a wide range of journalistic and scholarly texts, moving between French and English critical reception of his work. For Lepage, Toronto offered the best of both worlds: he could remain an ardent Quebecer while being welcomed as a fellow Canadian. Lepage, raised in a bilingual family, brought to his Toronto productions an understanding of English and Canadian culture that resisted presenting French against English and the rest of Canada versus Quebec. Instead, he took Toronto audiences on a global theatre voyage that transformed traditional geopolitical, cultural, and linguistic boundaries and questioned identity. Investigating the relationship between Quebec’s master dramaturge and Toronto, a burgeoning cosmopolitan city determined to be a global cultural capital, Robert Lepage on the Toronto Stage analyzes the success of one of the few Québécois artists to have achieved fame in English Canada.

The Theatricality of Robert Lepage studies several productions, including The Dragons' Trilogy, Vinci and Tectonic Plates, The Seven Streams of River Ota, Zulu Time, and The Far Side of the Moon. Dundjerovic provides major new insights into Lepage's creative process through an examination of his workshops, open rehearsals, and performances, as well as interviews with Lepage and his collaborators. Outlining the key production elements of Lepage's theatricality, Dundjerovic provides a practitioner's view of how Lepage creates as a director, actor, and writer and explores Lepage's practice within both the local Québécois and the international theatre context.

This book explores the development of Robert Lepage’s distinctive approach to stage direction in the early (1984-1994) and middle (1995-2008) stages of his career, arguing that globalisation had a defining effect on shaping his aesthetic and his professional trajectory. In addition to globalisation theory, the book draws on cinema studies, queer theory, and theories of affect and reception. Each of six chapters treats a particular aspect of globalisation, using this as a means to explore one or more of Lepage’s productions. Productions discussed include The Dragon’s Trilogy, Needles and Opium, and The Far Side of the Moon. Making theatre global: Robert Lepage’s original stage productions will be of interest to scholars of contemporary theatre, advanced-level undergraduates, and arts lovers keen for new perspectives on one of the most talked-about theatre artists of the early 21st century.

'Interviews with one of the world''s most stimulating creative talents. Audiences internationally have been thrilled and moved by such remarkable and personal works as Robert Lepage''s The Dragon''s Trilogy, Needles and Opium and The Seven Streams of the River Ota; versions of world classics like Strindberg''s A Dream Play and Shakespeare''s The Tempest, Coriolanus, Macbeth and a solo Hamlet; and films including The Confessional and Polygraph, a version of his stage play. In these revealing interviews with Quebec journalist Remy Charest, Lepage explores the sources of his creative inspiration and the compelling ideas that have animated his best known productions. He reveals strong views on art, culture, place and politics. In these lengthy interviews with Quebec journalist R my Charest, Lepage explores the sources of his creative inspiration and the compelling ideas that have animated his best known productions. He reveals strong views on art, culture, place and politics.'

'Routledge Performance Practitioners' is a series of introductory guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. This text looks at Robert Lepage, one of Canada's most foremost playwrights and directors.

Robert Lepage is one of Canada’s foremost theatre authors and directors. His company, Ex Machina, has toured to international acclaim and he has lent his talents to areas as diverse as opera, film, solo performance and installation art. His most celebrated work blends acute personal narratives with bold global themes through collaborative and multimedia theatricality. This book is the first to combine: • An overview of the key phases in Lepage’s life and career • An examination of the issues and questions pertinent to his work • A discussion of The Dragons’ Trilogy as a paradigm of his working methods • A variety of practical exercises designed to give an insight into Lepage’s creative process. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are of unbeatable value for today’s student.

This study returns to the origins of Robert Lepage's directorial work and his first cross-cultural interaction with a Shakespearean text to provide some background for his later work. This early work is situated within the political and social context of Quebec and Canada in the 1980s. Constitutional wrangling and government policies of bilingualism, biculturalism and multiculturalism all had a profound impact on this director, helping to forge his priorities and working methods. In 2018 two of Lepage's productions were cancelled due to concerns about cultural appropriation. Lepage responded by stating his view that the artist is as above the concerns of political correctness. While this approach was deemed acceptable in the 1980s, this study looks at the dangers posed by approaching cross-cultural creation from this standpoint in the 21st century.