If you examine the list below this review, you will see that it goes on\u00a0 almost like credits for a film. There are three actors on stage; but, as Robert Lepage indicated during the standing ovation curtain call at the end of the performance, there were many people performing last evening.<\/p>\n
The Blue Dragon<\/em> is a thoroughly conceived piece that involves Chinese calligraphy, lighting, sound and video effects, subtitles, dance, mythology, drama, often eye-tricking staging, quick changes, a trick ending, and no intermission. The lack of an intermission is a pet peeve of mine, but not in this case: we sat for almost two hours of uninterrupted performance, entranced.<\/p>\n The story involves Claire, an alcoholic Quebecoise\u00a0 who arrives in China ostensibly to adopt a little girl. She stops briefly at the home of Pierre, a Quebecois ex-pat who after a decade and a half speaks Chinese fluently and has been absorbed into a life of bicycles, tea and calligraphy. Claire and Pierre once were married, but, as Facebook categorizes, their relationship is “complicated”. Both are art dealers. He represents a promising young Chinese artist, Xiao Ling, who is also his lover.<\/p>\n The script observes Aristotle’s prescription of the unities in a most intriguing and complex manner: it starts with a little lecture by Pierre on Chinese calligraphy, particularly the symbol for river, which has three vertical strokes in it. Thus, there are three characters, three options at the crisis, and three endings.<\/p>\n Over (or perhaps under) all this is the blue dragon, who, the program informs us, is the fourth dragon. To step back a little: The Blue Dragon<\/em> is a sequel to a play Lepage presented\u00a0 twenty years ago: The Dragons’ Trilogy<\/em>, about Pierre and Claire and his decision to travel to China. I have not seen that play, but I see from the notes that each of four dragons represents a different force. One must understand that Oriental dragons are very different from European dragons; while the latter are fierce monsters that hoard gold and visit destruction on humans, oriental dragons are more complex characters, often with a sense of humour. The blue dragon, we are told, lies under ice and snow, symbolizing death and rebirth. The dragon is represented in the technical plot by thunder and lightning. I was pleased to note that unlike most sound and light plots, this one featured lightning flashes and thunder that were realistically not simultaneous. Thank you. That said, the weather thus becomes a forceful symbol in the production, and is represented almost cinematically as the aforementioned lightning and thunder as well as rain and snow. The rain and snow are effectively depicted by light effects. At times, snow takes on a haunting almost symbolic similarity to stars.<\/p>\n Another technical effect was set movement, which was used mainly for scene changes, some startlingly rapid and ingenious, others artistic and ingenious, shifting us rapidly between Pierre’s apartment and the train station or the airport or a bar, or from an interior to an exterior, or from one time to another. Some sets were panoramas, like the train progressing across the landscape in the distance, or the maps setting the Yangtze boat locales. The bicycle scenes were vivid illusions. In some, the bikes were moving backwards to create the effect of travel greater than the proscenium width. Needless to say by now that the technical effects were clever and effective and embracingly entertaining.<\/p>\n An unfair speculation: I wonder if it would be possible or even interesting to produce this dialogue without these effects. The dialogue is often witty and entertaining on its own, yet the effects are significant in contexting the dialogue. Case in point: the scene in which Claire finds Xiao Ling at work in the art factory. The paintings are projected effects, the emotional scene ending is enhanced by the crescendo of the music. Similarly, the lecture at the opening of the play would not work without the projection of the characters; by the same token, when Claire talks about the bar scene, the reference to the rotating table is enhanced by our strange memory of the bottles and glasses slowly passing in opposite directions on the long bar. The effects are integral to the production, beyond doubt.<\/p>\n The dance scenes featured Tai Wei Foo performing her own choreography. They were very effective at setting a cultural tone, and the two that used a follow-light background were incredibly stimulating, mainly because the effect is so unusual in a live setting. They were more like digressions than an integral part of the plot; in fact, they did not work as part of her character’s biography, as she\u00a0 was a painter, not\u00a0 a dancer. One particularly striking use of her art was the scene after which Claire leaves her: she cooly turns her camera phone on herself and takes her picture to capture her image as she is in that tragic instant, for a future portrait.<\/p>\n There is so much to comment on in this play. We come to know Pierre’s foibles\u2014certainly his appetite for sex, which reveals his superficiality; we see Claire’s desperation in her relationship to alcohol; we come to see Xiao Ling’s hard edge in her decisions. The set colours are superb, set design is exceptionally functional in multiple ways, sound and lighting deserve another superlative. It certainly deserved the enthusiastic and prolonged standing ovation.<\/p>\n Production seen: April 4, 2009 7:30 pm running time, approx 1 hour, 50 min. No intermission.<\/p>\n The Blue Dragon<\/em> Performed by English translation….. Michael Mackenzie The\u00a0Blue Dragon<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Copresented by the NAC English Theatre and Le Th\u00e9\u00e2tre fran\u00e7ais du CNA In coproduction with Associate producer, Europe, Japan….. Richard Castelli Ex Machina is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec’s Arts and Literature Council, and the City of Quebec.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.lacaserne.net<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you examine the list below this review, you will see that it goes on\u00a0 almost like credits for a film. There are three actors on stage; but, as Robert Lepage indicated during the standing ovation curtain call at the … Continue reading
\nWritten by Marie Michaud and Robert Lepage
\nDirected by Robert Lepage
\nAssistant to the director: F\u00e9lix Dagenais<\/p>\n
\nMarie Michaud<\/a>
\nRobert Lepage<\/a>
\nTai Wei Foo<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSet designer….. Michel Gauthier
\nProperties designer….. Jeanne Lapierre
\nSound designer….. Jean-S\u00e9bastien C\u00f4t\u00e9
\nLighting designer….. Louis-Xavier Gagnon-Lebrun
\nCostume designer….. Fran\u00e7ois St-Aubin
\nAssisted by….. Jessica Poirier-Chang
\nProjection designer….. David Leclerc
\nChoreographer….. Tai Wei Foo
\nDirector’s agent….. Lynda Beaulieu
\nProduction manager….. Julie Marie Bourgeois
\nTechnical director….. Pierre Gagn\u00e9
\nTour manager….. Danielle Fiset
\nStage manager….. Christian Garon
\nSound manager….. Donato Wharton
\nVideo manager….. Alexis Rivest
\nLighting managers….. Louis-Xavier Gagnon-Lebrun, F\u00e9lix Bernier Guimond
\nWardrobe and prop manager….. Jeanne Lapierre
\nChief stagehand….. Chlo\u00e9 Blanchet
\nStagehand….. Yannick Dufour
\nTechnical consultants….. Tobie Horswill, Catherine Guay
\nWigs….. Richard Hansen
\nSet building….. Astuce D\u00e9cors inc.
\nLes Conceptions visuelles Jean-Marc Cyr inc.
\nConception Alain Gagn\u00e9 inc.
\nChinese calligraphy….. Truong Chanh Trung<\/p>\n
\nProduced by Ex Machina<\/a> (Quebec City)<\/p>\n
\nLa Com\u00e8te (sc\u00e8ne Nationale de Ch\u00e2lons-en-Champagne, France)
\nLa Filature, Sc\u00e8ne Nationale de Mulhouse (France)
\nMC2 : Maison de la Culture de Grenoble (France)
\nLe Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Nouveau Monde, Montreal
\nFestival Internacional de las Artes de Castilla y Le\u00f3n, Salamanca 2008 (Spain)
\nLe Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Trident, Quebec City
\nSimon Fraser University, Vancouver
\nUCLA Live (Los Angeles, CA)
\nCanada’s National Arts Centre, Ottawa
\nCal Performances, University of California, Berkeley
\nbarbican bite 10<\/em>, London<\/p>\n
\nAssociate producer, United Kingdom….. Michael Morris
\nAssociate producer, The Americas, Asia (except Japan), Australia, NZ….. Menno Plukker
\nProducer for Ex Machina….. Michel Bernatchez<\/p>\n