The Dragons' Trilogy speaks of an imaginary China, a China invented in the minds of two young girls in the 1930s, brought up in the mysterious surrounding areas of the Chinese quarter of Quebec, a quarter which no longer exists.

One of these young girls, the only charachter present during all the periods of the piece, started off the performance with a few works which announced both the limits and the interest of the project : « I have never been to China ».
Since the creation of The Dragons' Trilogy, many performances directed by Robert Lepage have been presented in Asia, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong… The naive and curious approach which shaped the first Trilogy – one based around the exported China to be found in the Chinatowns of Quebec, Toronto and Vancouver – no longer exists. For the past 15 years, several of Lepage's productions have demonstrated his comprehension of a much explored and better understood vision of the Orient. He now offers a revised Dragons' Trilogy, a collaboration with Asians and with
a whole new generation of performers using a far richer theatrical vocabulary.

We may find there a new answer to that question often asked between opium fumes, taï chi and Mao chants:
So what does the Chinese launderer from the Saint-Roch quarter dream about?

The Dragons' Trilogy, Grand Prix of the Festival de théâtre des Amériques in 1987, has been presented in over 30 cities in North America, in Europe and in Oceania from 1985 to 1992.

Text: Marie Brassard, Jean Casault, Lorraine Côté, Marie Gignac, Robert Lepage, Marie Michaud
Director: Robert Lepage
Dramaturg: Marie Gignac
Assistant to the director: Félix Dagenais
Assistant to the director, original version: Philippe Soldevila
Performed by: Sylvie Cantin, Jean Antoine Charest, Simone Chartrand, Hugues Frenette, Tony Guilfoyle, Éric Leblanc, Véronika Makdissi-Warren, Emily Shelton
Original music: Robert Caux
Associate composer and musical arrangements: Jean-Sébastien Côté
Performed by: Martin Gauthier
Original set design: Jean François Couture, Gilles Dubé
Set design and properties assistant: Vano Hotton
Properties assistant: Marie-France Larivière
Lighting designer: Sonoyo Nishikawa
Original lighting design: Louis-Marie Lavoie, Lucie Bazzo
Costume designer: Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt
Assisted by: Sylvie Courbron
Projection design: Jacques Collin
Image design: Lionel Arnould

Production: Ex Machina
Co-production: Bergen Internasjonale Festival ; BITE:05, Barbican, Londres ; Centre Cultural de Belem, Lisboa ; Festival de Otoño, Madrid ; Festwochen / Berliner Festspiele ; Kampnagel, Hamburg ; Le Festival de théâtre des Amériques, Montréal ; Les Francophonies en Limousin, Limoges ; Pilar de Yzaguirre - Ysarca Art Promotions, Madrid ; Schauspielhaus Zürich / Zürcher Festspiele ; Teatr Dramatyczny, Varsovie ; Zagreb World Theatre Festival, Croatie

Producer for Ex Machina Michel Bernatchez
Associate Production - Europe and Japan Richard Castelli - Epidemic
Associate Production - The Americas, Asia (except Japan), Australia, NZ Menno Plukker Theatre Agent

Ex Machina is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec's Arts and Literature Council
and the City of Quebec.