Demonstrating a virtuosity in every type of theatre craft, French Canadian Robert Lepage has made his mark as an equally talented theatre, opera and film director, playwright and actor whose multimedia, often-bilingual and avant-garde
work has captivated audiences worldwide.
Passionate about theatre early on, following his studies at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec and a year of internship with Alain Knapp in Paris, Lepage began shaking up classical stage direction at Quebec’s Théâtre
Repère. He soon gained an international reputation, first with the six-hour-long Dragons’ Trilogy (1985) and then as Artistic Director of the Théâtre français at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (1989–1993).
Lepage founded his multidisciplinary production company, Ex Machina, in 1994, and began producing a steady output of plays such as <em>The Seven Streams of the River Ota</em> (1994) and, from 1997, at La Caserne, his
production centre in Quebec City, mould-breaking productions such as his solos <em>The Far Side of the Moon</em> (2000), <em>The Andersen Project</em> (2005) and <em>887</em> (2015), which
he wrote, directed and performed in many cities from Tokyo to London.
Concurrently, since the early 1990s, Lepage has gained renown in cinema and opera. He appeared in the film <em>Jésus de Montréal</em> (1988), directed <em>Le Confessionnal</em> (1995) and, from 2010–2012,
famously directed Wagner’s <em>Ring Cycle</em> at the Metropolitan Opera. In June 2015 he staged <em>The Tempest</em> opera in Vienna and the following year a new production of Kaija Saariaho’s <em>L’amour
de loin</em>, also at the Met. Equally known for his direction of rock shows, circuses and exhibits, he has designed a permanent Cirque du Soleil show, <em>KÀ</em> (2005), in Las Vegas; and for Quebec City’s
400th anniversary, he created <em>The Image Mill</em> (2008), the largest-ever architectural projection.
Lepage’s work has been recognized by many awards such as the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award (2009), the distinguished Prix Europe (2007), the Glenn Gould Prize (2014) and Quebec’s 2015 Compagnon des arts et des lettres.