Theatrical Superstar

Robert Lepage is the Wayne Gretzky of Canadian theatre, as dazzling and prolific on the stage as Gretzky was on ice, with name recognition anywhere in the world his game is played. Unlike the other Great One, Lepage plays multiple positions: writer, director, designer, actor. His arenas range from theatre to opera to circus. His moves are many and varied. He shoots, he scores.

Almost alone in Canadian performing arts, Lepage has achieved international superstar status while remaining firmly identified as Canadian. In the 1990s, as he directed Shakespeare in London and Strindberg in Stockholm, as his own plays travelled to New York, Tokyo and Salzburg, Lepage chose to root his company, Ex Machina, in his hometown, Quebec City, building an elaborate research lab and production centre there from which all his new work emerges.

Yet much of that work remains elusive for Canadians outside Quebec. The creator tightly controls his creations. No one gets to produce...