Ex Machina / Robert Lepage - Needles and Opium








	Needles and Opium


Olivier Normand and Wellesley Robertson III in Needles and Opium © Tristam Kenton Marc Labrèche in Needles and Opium © Nicola Frank Vachon BROCHURE PHOTOS VIDEOS		One night in 1949, on the plane bringing him back to France, Jean Cocteau writes his *Lettre aux Américains* in which fascination and disenchantment intertwine: he has just discovered New York, where he presentedhis most recent feature film, L’Aigle à deux têtes. At the same time, Miles Davis is visiting Paris for the first time, bringing bebop with him to the old continent. Parisian jazz fans are ecstatic. As the notes of *Je suis comme je suis* linger in the air, Juliette Greco opens her arms to him. Forty years later, at the Hotel La Louisiane, in Paris, a lonely Québécois tries in vain to forget his former lover. His emotional torments echo Cocteau’s dependence on opium and that of Davis’ on heroin. There begins a spectacular withdrawal experience where the drawings of the prince of poets and the blue notes of the jazzman, accompany his leap into nothingness, the desperate effort of a man looking inwards in order to vanquish the pain and liberate himself from his love addiction. Thru highly visual staging, which is as much magic as it is theatre, Robert Lepage revisits, 20 years after its first production, *Needles and Opium*. A new scenography, original images, and an acrobat onstage complement Cocteau’s words. The result is a production with mesmerizing effects, a journey into the night that puts us under a spell and leads us into the light. Estimated time: 1h35, no intermission Text: Robert Lepage English translation: Jenny Montgomery Director: Robert Lepage Director Assistant: Normand Bissonnette With: Olivier Normand, Wellesley Robertson III Set Designer: Carl Fillion Props Designer: Claudia Gendreau Music and sound Designer: Jean-Sébastien Côté Lighting Designer: Bruno Matte Costume Designer: François St-Aubin Images Designer: Lionel Arnould Production Ex Machina Co-production: Théâtre du Trident, Québec; Canadian Stage, Toronto; Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Montréal; Adelaide Festival; New Zealand Festival; Le Grand T, théâtre de Loire-Atlantique; Les Quinconces-L'espal, scène conventionnée, théâtres du Mans; Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon; Le Volcan, Scène nationale du Havre; Festival de Otoño a Primavera, Madrid; ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage, Boston; Le Théâtre français du CNA avec the English; Theatre et the Magnetic North Theatre Festival; Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo; LG Arts Center, Seoul; the Barbican, London; La Comète - Scène nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne; La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand scène nationale; Les Salins, scène nationale de Martigues; John F. Kennedy for Performing Arts; American Conservatory Theatre ; «Marin Sorescu» National Theatre and Shakespeare Foundation, Craiova ; The International Diaghilev Festival, Perm ; Theatre Royal Plymouth Producer for Ex Machina Michel Bernatchez Associate Production - Europe and Japan Richard Castelli - Epidemic Associate Production - The Americas, Asia (except Japan), Australia, NZ Menno Plukker Theatre Agent Ex Machina is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec's Arts and Literature Council and the City of Quebec.