Caroline Robert and Vincent Morisset - Studio AATOAA © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon

Le projet Riopelle

Biography in living canvases by Robert Lepage / Ex Machina

2023-12-14 19:00 2023-12-17 23:30 60 Canada/Eastern 🎟 NAC: Le projet Riopelle

https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/33682

In-person event

With his incomparable theatrical genius, Robert  Lepage revives the light-and-shadow existence of the master of lyrical abstraction, Jean  Paul  Riopelle. The anchor point: his fresco Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg, which he began the day after the announcement of the death of his soulmate, painter Joan  Mitchell. Thirty paintings like thirty sequences of a torrid love story and an extraordinary life woven into the fabric of a sociocultural revolution.  Theatre is a...

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Babs Asper Theatre,1 Elgin Street,Ottawa,Canada
December 14 - 17, 2023

December 2023

  1. Dec 14 2023
    Thursday

    7:00pm

  2. Dec 15 2023
    Friday

    7:00pm

  3. Dec 16 2023
    Saturday

    3:00pm

  4. Dec 17 2023
    Sunday

    1:30pm

Close schedule
Caroline Robert and Vincent Morisset - Studio AATOAA © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
Printing the "Refus global" © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
Painting Course © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
Young Riopelle in Paris © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
Lovers on the Seine © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
Doubts and Elevation © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
Riopelle and Joan © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
Beach Time © Ex Machina / Danny Taillon
“The layers and colours of a great painter’s life ”
  • In-person event
  • Français
  • ≈ 4 hours and 05 minutes · With intermission
NAC PremiereOttawa Premiere NAC Co-productionNAC Presentation

With his incomparable theatrical genius, Robert  Lepage revives the light-and-shadow existence of the master of lyrical abstraction, Jean  Paul  Riopelle. The anchor point: his fresco Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg, which he began the day after the announcement of the death of his soulmate, painter Joan  Mitchell. Thirty paintings like thirty sequences of a torrid love story and an extraordinary life woven into the fabric of a sociocultural revolution. 

Theatre is a powerful time machine that Robert Lepage uses to explore the many layers and textures of Riopelle’s life: the student and his teacher Paul-Émile Borduas, who introduced him to the signatories of the Refus global; the émigré in Paris, alongside Breton, Beckett, Giacometti; Riopelle and Mitchell, in two parts, featuring two pairs of dazzling performers, including Luc Picard and Anne-Marie-Cadieux; and finally Riopelle in his twilight years on Île-aux-Grues, expanding his legacy with the famous silhouettes of birds and objects captured forever in spray paint. 

With his unique signature, his humour, his virtuosity as a dramatic storyteller and his perceptive view of Quebec’s identity, the creator of The Dark Side of the Moon and 887 revives the memory of an authentic free spirit in a tribute to one of the pioneers of contemporary art. 

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Dec 11
Dec 12
Dec 13
Dec 14
  • 7:00 pm Opening Night
Dec 15
  • 7:00 pm
Dec 16
  • 3:00 pm
Dec 17
  • 1:30 pm ADDED PERFORMANCE
© Caroline Robert et Vincent Morisset - Studio AATOAA
© Impression du «Refus global»
© Cours de peinture
© Le jeune Riopelle à Paris
© Amoureux sur la Seine
© Doute et élévation
© Riopelle et Joan
© Journée à la plage

Artists

  • Robert Lepage ©Tony Hauser
    Written, designed and directed by Robert Lepage
  •  ©steve-blanchet
    Coauthor, creative direction and design Steve Blanchet
  • Written, designed and directed by Robert Lepage
  • With Anne-Marie Cadieux, Violette Chauveau, Richard Fréchette, Gabriel Lemire, Étienne Lou, Noémie O’Farrell, Luc Picard, Audrée Southière and Philippe Thibault-Denis
  • Coauthor, creative direction and design Steve Blanchet
  • Dialogues Olivier Kemeid
  • Assistant director: Félix Dagenais
  • Music and sound design Laurier Rajotte
  • Associate set design Ariane Sauvé
  • Images design: Félix Fradet-Faguy
  • Lighting design: Lucie Bazzo
  • Costumes design Virginie Leclerc
  • Properties design Eveline Tanguay
  • Choreography Jeffrey Hall
  • Production manager Marie-Pierre Gagné
  • Production assistant Véronique St-Jacques
  • Technical director, creation Olivier Bourque
  • Tour manager Carole-Anne Roberge
  • Technical director, tour Emmanuelle Nappert
  • Stage manager Adèle Saint-Amand
  • Sound manager: Stanislas Élie
  • Lighting manager Zacharie Filteau
  • Video manager Zachary Noël-Ferland
  • Assistant stage managers Anne-Marie Bureau and Louis-Philippe Cloutier
  • Costumes manager Virginie Leclerc
  • Properties manager Chloé Blanchet
  • Robert Lepage’s agent: Lynda Beaulieu
  • Producer Ex Machina 
  • Coproducers Fondation Jean Paul Riopelle, Duceppe, Le Diamant and NAC French Theatre
  • Producer for Ex Machina Michel Bernatchez, assisted by Hélène Paradis
  • Executive producer Europe, Japan: Epidemic (Richard Castelli, assisted by Florence Berthaud)
  • Executive producer Americas, Asia (except Japan), Australia, New Zealand: Menno Plukker Theatre Agent (Menno Plukker, assisted by Magdalena Marszalek and Isaïe Richard)