About the book
Robert Lepage’s Original Stage Productions: Making Theatre Global explores the development of Robert Lepage’s distinctive approach to stage direction in the early (1984- 1994) and middle (1995-2008) stages of his career, arguing that globalisation had a defining effect on shaping his aesthetic and his professional trajectory. It combines examination of Lepage’s theatre-making techniques with discussion of his work’s effects on audiences, calling on Lepage’s own statements as well as existing scholarship and critical response. In addition to globalisation theory, the book draws on cinema studies, queer theory, and theories of affect and reception. As such it offers an unprecedented conceptual framework, drawing together what has previously been a scattered field of research.
Each of six chapters treats a particular aspect of globalisation, using this as a means to explore one or more of Lepage’s productions. These aspects include the relationship of the local (in Lepage’s case, his background in Québec) to the global; the place of individual experience within global late modernity; the effects of screen media on human perception; the particular affect of “feeling global”; the place of branding in contemporary creative systems; and the relationship of creative industries to neoliberal economies. Productions discussed include The Dragon’s Trilogy, Needles and Opium, and The Far Side of the Moon.
Robert Lepage’s Original Stage Productions: Making Theatre Global will be of interest to scholars of contemporary theatre, advanced-level undergraduates with an interest in the application of theoretical approaches to theatrical creation and reception, and arts lovers keen for new perspectives on one of the most talked-about theatre artists of the late 20th and early 21st century.
Click here to read the Introduction.
About the author
Karen Fricker is Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts at Brock University, Ontario, Canada; and a theatre critic at the Toronto Star. In addition to research on Robert Lepage, her research interests include contemporary circus; the Eurovision Song Contest; and the changing nature of theatre criticism in the digital age. With Charles R. Batson she is co-founder of the Circus and its Others research project; the project’s third biennial conference will take place at the University of California, Davis in November 2021. She is vice-president of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association and has written and broadcast for outlets including The Guardian, Variety, The New York Times, The Irish Times, the CBC and RTÉ. Originally from Los Angeles, she holds BA and MA degrees from Stanford University and a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin.
