ROBERT LEPAGE

“What draws me to Hamlet is his ability to forge a link between the acts he must undertake and his own thoughts. In a private moment, he says to Horatio >>Give me that man that is not passion’s slave and I will wear him in my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart<< … And yet, isn’t the absence of blind passion that prevents him from doing what he has to do? … In any case, Elsinore is not a real Hamlet, but a tentative exploration of the intricacies of his thought and times – and in some sense of my own.”
Robert Lepage

Following Vinci and The Needles And Opium, Robert Lepage is now completing his trilogy of one-man plays by taking on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. With Elsinore, Lepage has created a remarkable synthesis of dazzling theatre technology and cinematic conventions (including film-like projected credits) to create an intensely personal, richly architectural take on the drama of Shakespeare. The production is an interactive video designed for one actor, embodied by Robert Lepage himself who plays all the roles, including Ophelia.

Lepage engages us not only with the rich text, but with the complex stage mechanics (designed by Carl Fillion), the multimedia effects (Jaques Collin), the video animation (Michel Petrin) and Robert Caux’s soundscape.

The masterful use of these technologies makes the audience see things that they would not normally be able to see. Infrared and thermal cameras, sonar slides make it possible to see behind walls, to see the colour of Hamlet’s despair, emphasizing thus the play’s claustrophobic atmosphere. The actor, in something of a state of virtual reality, literally enters into the play. The stage is a set comprised of three moveable panels. The central one rotates into everything from a ship’s deck to the stairway to the Queen’s bedchamber. The cut-out at its center becomes a library window, a grave and the lake in which Ophelia drowns.

“Elsinore is a work of brilliance and unending imagination (…) This is a breakthrough work – one that forges new ground for live theatre and for Lepage” Chicago Sun – Times

PRODUCTION DATES
Montréal, Canada, Monument-National , 2 – 8 November 1995
Créteil, France, Maison des Arts
2 – 4 April 1996
Berlin, Germany, Hebbel-Theater
2 – 6 May 1996
Palermo, Italy, Teatro Biondo Stabile
10 – 12 October 1996
Udine, Italy, Palasport
12 – 13 November 1996
Chicago, USA, Athenaeum Theatre
17 – 18 November 1996