Lepage double bill heads to Toronto
Toronto will get a double bill of Robert Lepage this fall, with The Andersen Project and Eonnagata coming to the city for the first time.
The megastar producer whose Blue Dragon played in Vancouver during the 2010 Cultural Olympiad wrote The Andersen Project, a multi-media examination of the works of Hans Christian Andersen.
The Andersen Project, a one-man show starring Yves Jacques, will be presented Oct. 21 to 30 at Canadian Stage's Bluma Appel Theatre.
Eonnagata is the story of Charles de Beaumont, Chevalier d'Éon, an 18th-century French diplomat, writer, and cross-dressing spy.
The theatre and dance production, first presented at Sadler's Wells in London, will be presented at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts on Nov. 18 to 19.
The Sony Centre, formerly the O'Keefe Centre, is under renovation and set to reopen Oct. 1.
Like many works from Lepage's Ex Machina production company, Eonnagata combines exotic techniques — in this case drawn from Japan's Kabuki theatre tradition — in a visual spectacle.
The work is created and performed by Lepage, French ballerina Sylvie Guillem and British choreographer Russell Maliphant.
The Andersen Project was performed in Denmark in 2005 as part of the 200th anniversary celebrations of Hans Christian Anderson's birth.
The multimedia theatre event follows an artist who travels to Paris to write an opera based on Anderson's fairy tales. It is part of the Canadian Stage season, to be announced in full March 16.