Robert Lepage: A defining artist

October 11, 2012

In 1995, I had the fortune of attending the final version of Robert Lepage’s opus The Seven Streams of the River Ota. The production had been long in development (and performances), sustaining an original version of four “streams”, then seven, then reworked over several years—garnering both strong and less then favourable responses. (In the end, each “stream” averaged an hour in length).

What I witnessed over two nights at the Brooklyn Academy of Music was in my mind—and in the minds of my fellow dedicated theatre goers (Meredith Monk sat in the row just in front of me)—an essential theatrical work of the 20th century, right up there with Death of Salesman, Judgment at Nuremberg, and The Good Soldier Švejk. It was not only a work belonging to the last century; it also served to define it.

Robert Lepage is simply one of those defining artists. Those who define a new theatrical worldliness, who extend technical boundaries beyond what it currently conceivable, who create a new sense of virtuosity, who mark a new intersection of man and machine, who forcibly blur an authorial and collective voice—I think of it as “collaborative playmaking.”

Far Side of the Moon is nothing short of exquisite. Surely one of Lepage’s finest works in the last 15 years. Premiering in 2000, this production remains as potent, poignant and intellectually satisfying as ever.

PuSh is proud to be a “Community Partner” for this SFU Woodward’s and Théâtre la Seizième presentation of Far Side of the Moon. Join me…. Be sure to get a seat and strap in. Your sense of travel will never be the same.

Far Side of the Moon

Presented by SFU Woodward’s in collaboration with Théâtre la Seizième. Community Partner PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
November 1 – 10, 2012
6 novembre: Représentation en français – La face cachée de la lune
Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre,
 Goldcorp Centre for the Arts  Click here for more info