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.
Video: "Trilogie des dragons"
