Theatre
The Andersen Project
A Modern Fairy-Tale by Robert Lepage
The Andersen Project © Érick Labbé
The French Canadian theatre artist Robert Lepage is a storyteller and a master in the delaying and deceleration tactics of theatrical realities, using new technologies so as to playfully challenge the possibilities of illusion. Lepage plays a French Canadian artist – perhaps a contemporary alter ego of the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen – who comes to Paris to write a libretto for a children’s opera based on Andersen’s fairy tale The Dryad. Hoping for a breakthrough, the artist fails in grand style to find his feet in the commercial opera world. Robert Lepage is the tragicomic hero of this modern fairy tale about isolation, and in this new solo work he presents a magic moment of his remarkable theatre art.
Cast
Written, directed and performed by Robert Lepage
Script Collaborators Peder Bjurman, Marie Gignac
Directing Collaborators Félix Dagenais
Stage Design Collaborators Jean Le Bourdais
Lighting Design Collaborators Nicolas Marois
Sound Design Jean-Sébastien Côté
Costume Design Catherine Higgins
Production Ex Machina, Québec City
Coproduction spielzeiteuropa | Berliner Festspiele; barbicanbite06, London; Bonlieu Scène Nationale, Annecy; Festival de Otoño de la Comunidad de Madrid, Célestins; Théâtre de Lyon; Change Performing Arts, Milan; La Comète (Scène Nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne); La Coursive, La Rochelle; Le Festival d’automne à Paris; Le Grand Théâtre de Québec; Le Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Montréal; Le Théâtre du Trident, Québec; Le Théâtre français du Centre National des Arts d’Ottawa; Le Théâtre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine; Le Théâtre National de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées; Maison des Arts, Créteil; Pilar de Yzaguirre – Ysarca Art Promotions, Madrid; Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo; The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation; The Sydney Festival
Supported by the Canadian Embassy and the representation of the government of Québec – Cultural Office, Berlin