Praxis Theatre

Director in Training: Lepage gets complicated with simplicity

Yves Jacques was interviewed about The Anderson Project when it toured to Philadelphia.

by Michael Wheeler

This morning I watched the dress rehearsal for ex Machina’s The Anderson Project, directed by Robert Lepage, starring Yves Jacques at Canadian Stage. It is fairly astounding. I will leave it to the critics to dissect all the craziness, but I think it is safe to say that this is must-see material for theatre creators who live remotely near the Toronto area.

This show has been touring since it opened in London in 2006 and for good reason: The technical creativity that goes into the opening credits sequence alone is a little humbling. A projector hooked up to an infra-red scanner that can tell what it is projecting on, and a set attached to a vacuum system that can expand and contract, are just a small part of what you DON’T notice while Lepage weaves at least three tales together in a multi-character drama starring a single actor.

Thanks to Canadian Stage for allowing me to watch it be loaded in and teched for the past couple of days as part of my training program. The Anderson Project is only here for 10 days. I almost missed Lipsynch a year-and-a-half  ago and the thought makes me shiver with hypothetical dismay in retrospect.