Robert Lepage : Conférence de presse Eonnagata (English et français) au CNA
Robert Lepage : Conférence de presse Eonnagata (English et français)
with Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage et Russell Maliphant (au CNA )
Portions of the discussion are inaudible. The conversation was in both languages, depending on the questions asked. There was no translation. Mon appareil n’a pas capté certaines portions de la conversation. La rencontre a eu lieu en deux langues et je reproduis les réponses dans la langue parlée par l’intervenant, sans traduction. (A.R)
Rosemary Thompson: So tell me about this collaboration because this was quite unusual.
Sylvie Guillem : It was my fault. I always admired Robert’s work…. (The rest is barely audible)
Robert Lepage: I was very interested in this from the start. My work originally came from physical theatre; those were years where we didn’t speak much, or we spoke gibberish and the text at that point was not important. We were involved in the techniques of Lecoq, mime, commedia dell’arte. In those days there was a lot of political theatre, a lot of street theatre but as of 1972, my work became too talkative. The spoken word become more important although I didn’t feel very comfortable doing that kind of verbal theatre but one cannot go back to earlier forms of expression, or go back to what one did before. This new experience has given me an opportunity to ask myself about the process of storytelling, about my body, about theatre, about live performance and what one convey’s with emotions. .
Journaliste. Vous pouvez dire la même chose en français s’il vous plaît?
R. L. Sylvie, Russell et moi-même, notre travail avec nos compagnies nous emmène à travers le monde. Nous nous sommes croisés dans les festivals sans vraiment se connaître parce qu’il y a toujours un petit réseau dans le monde de 20 ou 25 festivals où les gens se croisent. On a tous envie, à un moment de sa carrière, de se mettre en danger, de faire quelque chose d’inhabituel (inaudible) Dans mon cas, c’était quelque chose de plus physique, de moins verbal; je voulais être moins bavard et retourner vers le corps
Anne Michaud, (Radio Canada-radio) Pourquoi Le Chevalier Éon?
S.G. C’est à cause de Robert. Nous nous sommes retrouvés dans un studio pour se connaître, pour savoir qui nous étions. Nous avons commencé à improviser et à la fin de cette semaine, Robert a dit, en voyant cela, qu’il était peut-être le moment de faire quelque chose sur le Chevalier d’ Éon. Alors tous les trois…(inaudible)
R.L Je ne savais pas du tout ce que cela voulait dire au départ. E-on est un mot de trois lettres dans les mots croisés mais j’ai ensuite fais un peu de recherche sur ce Chevalier. On n’a jamais su si c’était un homme ou une femme (…) il existe toutes sortes de mythes autour de ce personnage extrêmement intéressant, un personnage politique, un personnage un peu burlesque. Mais ce qui m’intéressait surtout était le travestissement. Cela est sorti dans les ateliers(…) nous avons exploré ce que cela voulait dire jouer un homme, jouer une femme. (…)
Sandra Abma : Can you repeat the answer in English please?
Robert Lepage (à ses colleagues) Welcome to Canada!
Sandra Abma (CBC television) : Please talk about the themes of this dance piece and why they interest you and what you are exploring, because it seems to me that you are always trying to explore some idea or some emotion that interests you. What are you doing in this performance?.
Russell Maliphant. I always remember one thing that Robert said: that it was very much male energy and female energy that propelled us as we were dancing this duet. That also seemed to be something important in this story about the Chevalier Deon. Whether he was a woman or a man, was very unclear. Also the connection with France, England and Canada, is important in his /her life so there seemed to be many aspects of our relation that fit this particular project.
R.L. And also, Russell comes from contemporary dance and he has always created within those parameters. This is why he is extremely disciplined. However, his tradition is not based on story telling . I came from the tradition of theatre where we tell a story and we wear costumes. Sylvie was an interesting go-between coming from the classical dance world although she has made her career as a contemporary dancer but she has a long experience in Classical ballet which is also about creating characters and telling stories. So it was interesting to make that happen together. In contemporary dance one doesn’t become abstract but it is more about energy than about story telling. In the theatre it’s about what defines character. As creative artists, we all want to convey ideas, images or emotions
Alvina Ruprecht (CBC radio). Étant donné l’orientation actuelle de votre esthétique plutôt axée sur l’image beaucoup plus que sur la parole, est-ce que la danse serait un aboutissement logique de votre travail et serait-elle une forme de libération par rapport à la parole?
R.L D’une certaine façon. Mais le spectacle n’est pas exactement de la danse. Oui c’est vrai que par moments on danse, par moments il y a de la parole, C’est pourquoi on a un objet un peu étrange dans les mains qui raconte une histoire mais qui navigue toujours entre le théâtre de gestes, la parole et la danse. Ce n’est pas exactement de la danse mais c’est dansé. Ce n’est pas du théâtre mais c’est joué.
Nous avons créé une chose hybride dans laquelle on navigue et ou on chante.
S. G. ….où la voix est présente, elle m’a toujours suivie. (Inaudible) C’est vrai, On raconte une histoire avec ce qu’on a. Parfois c’est le corps, parfois c’est le geste, parfois c’est le mouvement, parfois c’est plus choréographié, parfois c’est moins choréographié, c’est la parole, c’est le chant, voilà tout ce que nous avons à notre disposition pour raconter cette histoire.
R.L. Parfois il y a des objets aussi. Il n’y pas de décor vraiment. Les tables sont les objets importants. Le spectacle est devenu un théâtre d’objets
Journaliste : Radio Canada : Vous avez tous un background très différent les uns des autres. Qu’est-ce que vous avez appris l’un de l’autre. Cela fait quand même longtemps que vous avez commencé à créer ce spectacle?
R.M I think it’s a process that is still going on. We work on the piece each time we come together: the e esthetics, our working process, our own experiences, they all fit together. Like tectonique plates. And everything is always changing. We get to experience more time with the piece as we go along and understand how these images and texts and movements can all contribute to the spoken word. Certainly, I feel that the process we had was one of the most playful processes that I have ever experienced. And usually, for myself, I felt that we had to ‘get serious” because for the most part, the “work” was “play”. I have certainly learned a different way of approaching my work.
R.L. Where I come from, the theatre, and certainly a theatre of “creation” (as opposed to repertory theatre- my note), it is all about trying things, about improvisation; it’s a very impatient process. We want things to happen. I feel that the moment you go into dance, where things are expressed in a physical way, in a less obvious way, you have to be patient. It all takes time. Working with dance, you have to trust that something will eventually come out at the end of the day. For me that is a new experience. I felt this also when I was working with the Cirque du Soleil. Dance is about trust, whatever you search for, at the end of a certain time, the work itself will tell you, and now this is what we want. But one has to be patient, and patience is not my best quality.
S.G. That’s where I come in! I was not patient before. I did have some experience (…) I had had other experiences with Russell where I had to put a bit of myself into the performance but this was the first time when I had to put a lot of myself into the work. I had to face that so I learned a lot.
R.L. It was also strange because we are all used to leading what we do. We are all in a position of some authority. But suddenly, the three of us with strong personalities, so someone has to step in and decide. However, it was very refreshing not to be responsible for the whole show.
(…)
Sarah Jennings (CBC). That quality of evolution seems to be a characteristic of Robert’s work. In practical terms how did you come together to create this work? Where were you seeing each other? How frequently.? Robert is a bird on the fly..
S.G At the end of the run we say, the changes are done, now we can think them over for next time. The next time is usually a few months later. And then we meet two or three days before the show and that is when we do it. But there is usually some reflex ion between meetings
R.L. …because we do have very complex schedules, not just our careers but our personal lives as well.. we had to figure out..can we do a week here, or a week there?.
R.M. We were actually supposed to meet in Paris but we couldn’t because of the strikes. That was going to be an opportunity where we would have had a couple of days where we would all be in the same city, not the city where any of us live but we would all be there for a while. But then, because of the strikes we couldn’t make it. That was an opportunity that did not work (missed phrases) .
Journalist. I was wondering if your work on the Ring cycle (New York at the Met) informed this show in any way.
R.L I don’t know, I’ll discover that this week. Actually, the Met experience was very very different. Not just because it is opera but also because of the way Opera is produced in the USA. All of us come from a world of state subsidized theatre and that changes everything. How you rehearse, the mentality, the audience (inaudible)
Journalist. Is this the first time you have staged the production without Alexander McQueen
R.L No we did have a chance in London this summer to do it again; we performed Eonnagata this summer in Singapore after Alexander died. He was an amazing creative genius, rare in this world. We inherited his costumes Compared to a lot of his work, these costumes are very sober, We were very proud to wear his costumes. (inaudible) (Lepage a ajouté lors de sa conversation avec Wajdi Mouawad – Samedi le 20 nov., que les costumes ont en partie déterminés les mouvements)
(?) Lessard, Journal Le Droit j’aimerais savoir si cette production aura une influence sur vos prochains projets parce que vous avez assurément découvert une autre façon de bouger sur scène ..
R.L Je répondrai simplement que ce qui m’intéresse au théâtre, c’est aussi pourquoi je fais de l’opéra, je fais de la danse, je fais du cinéma, parce que pour moi, le théâtre est un Gesamtkunstwerk, un dialogue des arts, ou un art total. Cette idée de Wagner..une manière de raconter une histoire à partir de multiples languages scéniques que j’essaie de gérer pour voir comment cela influence mon travail. Dans le Dragon bleu il y a une danseuse chinoise qui n’était pratiquement pas exploitée (il est difficile à comprendre mais il dit en gros qu’il va repenser la participation de cette danseuse et rendre sa présence encore plus importante dans le spectacle Le Dragon bleu.)
(Question d’Anne Michaud..inaudible.)
R.L j’ai abandonné le cinéma…
S. Abma. Because you have worked and created in every possible form that you can imagine, in film, in television whether its been in front of the camera or behind it, or in the theatre as a director, performer, what does dance allow you that you are not finding in those other genres of performance. What is the essence of that experience.?
R.L Well I think that it has to do with intuition and memory, what your body knows but that your brain doesn’t know. – a corporeal memory. Yes we have discussions around the table, then when we start moving, or dancing that is when your corporeal memory takes over. Apart from learning lines and memorizing, there is something extremely intuitive that takes over. Remembering where you are from, what you are made up, who you are; it is different from the work of an actor, it demands a different kind of concentration,
Alvina Ruprecht Puisque vous parlez d,un spectacle “hybride’ il y a donc des elements de texte, Quelle est la source de ces textes?
R.L Il y a eu beaucoup de recherches sur les textes qui ont été écrits sur le Chevalier Eon,. À notre structure de base, nous ajoutons des chansons, des poèmes..un collage de textes en quelque sort..oui c’est ca..
A.R. Avez-vous pensé à la nature du travail de Pina Bausch qui fait beaucoup parler dans ses spectacles?
R.L Elle était avant tout une chorégraphe , elle s’intéressait au corps mais elle se permettait de faire parler ses danseurs. …(inaudible) elle était très importante pour moi….(…)
Propos recueillis par Alvina Ruprecht