A visit to La caserne, ExMachina and Robert Lepage's Work Studio.

When I knew that La caserne, Robert Lepage and ExMachina's headquarters, was two blocks from my hotel in Quebec City, I didn't have any doubt in going to visit that almost mythic place (at least for Canadian performing arts artists), comparable only with La Fura del Baus performing arts research centre. I thought there were inside a kind of bookshop or store, so it could be worth visiting as a theatre tourist and as a researcher.

The building is a very nice remodeled and modernized old structure of a former fire station (you can see the images published here), pretty impressive, specially when you think in an apparently small theatre company, but it seems that Lepage and associates have done not only a very good artistic work but also a very well financial one.

Indeed there was a bookshop, and talking a little bit with two kind ladies at the reception desk I found the possibility, as a playwright and theatre researcher, to get some special recordings of Lepage's works (with the signed clause of not to use it in commercial purposes, of course), so I didn't miss the opportunity and asked for the whole "Trilogie des dragons" and some books. I wanted the last productions (Lipsynch and The Ring...) but they weren't able to provide any of them; anyhow, I was very happy to be there and get 4 DVDs with the Trilogie... and books (one day before at The Grand Theatre of Quebec during the performance of La face cachée de la lune I bought some other books) and see a little bit of their beautiful building.

Slideshow of photographs of La Caserne. ExMachina and Robert Lepage's headquarters.

Video: "Trilogie des dragons"

"la danza del padre" Fifth movement: Le père se meurt pour prémier fois.

We know you can not pay the bills,

you have betrayed our mother with several women, and you want to escape from your mistakes;

but we are young and we easily forget, we're easily frightened.

You said you were tired, walked to the bed and you drop on it upside down;

you were breathing hard, you said that your heart pressure had problems...

We followed you, curious.

In front of your children you stop your breath, leaving your mouth open, like a dead.

And we are looking at you, calling to you, you don't respond, then we scream.

My father is dying in front of his children!

(...)

This is a rehearsal.

The first of several times you will die like in a theater.

You die in your world of fantasy, this is a stage, a life stage.

We are your ideal audience, naive we suffer, we scream, and we cry.

Do you know, dancer father, my mother never believed in your theater?

Wim Wenders on Pina (a video-interview by The Guardian)

Wim Wenders was working with Pina Bausch in a film about dance and 3D when it was interrupted because of Pina health problems. After her death Wenders continued working on it, and now it is ready for its premier in Berlin. 

This is what The Guardian's page says about this video: 

"Wim Wenders on Pina: 'Pina had gone deep into research of the human soul'. Charlotte Higgins talks to the director of Pina, which pays tribute to the legendary German choreographer Pina Bausch and had its world premiere at the Berlin film festival, about how filming in 3D helped honour her memory"

Link: Wim Wenders on Pina

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/feb/14/pina-bausch-wim-wenders

The Far Side of the Moon (La face cachée de la lune) by Robert Lepage, at The Grand Theatre of Quebec

Last February 10th, 2011 I saw the mythic Robert Lepage's creation "La face cachée de la lune" (The dark side of the Moon) at the Grand Theatre of Quebec, Canada. I simply could corroborate that Lepage is a great storyteller and a great stage director; he theatrically knows how to deal with our age and how to use its different languages.

Slideshow: La face cachée de la lune, at Quebec Grand Theatre (Feb 10th, 2011)

Here a video from Youtube showing some extracts of the play (in French as I listened to it in Quebec)

"La danza del padre" Fourth movement: Le père au foie douloureux.

We see you seated with your feet lying up, we expect something from you, but we don't know what.You've been there, maybe for hours, something hurts and you scream at times.
Your hands push your liver and your face is seized with unbearable pain.
You talk with God, you have a conversation with him but we only can listen to you.
You ask God to let you to continue your mission, you shout that you need time to doing it in peace.
What mission, Dad? What mission God entrusted you?
You have your audience, you know, it's your theater, we are your children;
is your death scene again.
In a few days you'll have surgery because you have stones stocked inside you.
A grain of truth in your ever invented dance of death.

íslenska óperan. The Icelandic Opera Theatre.

íslenska óperan (By Gustavo Thomas 2010)

There is a new one in construction and it will be fantastic, but the old íslenska óperan building got its own charm. It remembers me those 1900's provincial theatre buildings in my native Mexico (the Icelandic Opera building was built in 1928). 

Sorry, only exterior images of it. As I said in my past post about Iceland, I went there in a very good time for tourism but in a very bad time for performing arts, all the theatres were in Summer pause.

Slideshow of íslenska óperan building

The new opera house in construction (July, 2010)

(All photographs by Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2010)

"La danza del padre" Third movement: Le père emmène le frère au cimetière.

My brother will die and my mind edits the memory of it:
You are taking him to somewhere, he is weak and ill.
No matter where you took my brother in real, he never returned to us.
You take him to the cemetery, that's what I see.
You do not cry, but I only can see your back.
Maybe I see this scene as others of your lies,
where you were acting and made us believe that you had died.
The truth is harsh and also creates lies in me.

Þjóðleikhúsið (National Theatre of Iceland)

Þjóðleikhúsið (National Theatre of Iceland) 2010.

As part of my continued desire for sharing travels and experience, I publish today one video and some photographs of Þjóðleikhúsið, The National Theatre of Iceland, a beautiful building from the 1950's in Reykjavik. The theatre was designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, and was formally opened on April 20, 1950.

I was in Reykjavik in the Summer of last 2010, an amazing travel, plenty of good memories. It was sad that, during all July, none theatre is open in Iceland; so, I only took images of the exterior, but I am sure they're worth watching them.

video of Þjóðleikhúsið National Theatre of Iceland

Slideshow of Þjóðleikhúsið (National Theatre of Iceland)