Ex Machina / Robert Lepage








	Lipsynch


Lipsynch © Érick Labbé BROCHURE PHOTOS VIDEOS		Lipsynch is an exploration of human expression through voice, word and language. It touches on postsynchronization, voice synthesizers, operatic song, babies crying, voice detection, and many other vocal phenomena. The work takes the form of a succession of people from many backgrounds whose paths are destined to cross, while every voice seems to be on a quest for its own identity. In its range, humour and polyphonic variety, Lipsynch is reminiscent of American filmmaker Robert Altman's most ambitious projects, in which individual stories engage with the human Story. "We often confuse voice, speech and language, but those are indeed three very distinct and totally different things. Lipsynch is about the specific signification of all three and their interaction in modern human expression. Up until now, our work at Ex Machina had focused mainly on telling stories using image, movement, space and music. Voice was rather an afterthought. This time around, we have decided to make it our focal point, and see where the exploration of oral communication in all its forms would take us. This endeavor has lead us to unsuspected places, a dizzying trek forcing us, as individuals involved in this artistic project, to delve deeper than ever before into our own selves. The voice is an internal machinery that finds its ultimate expression outside of the body, but in order to examine it and try to understand it properly one needs to pull away from visual stimuli for a while and go where the voice is « seated » . As in our other shows, the form and structure of Lipsynch is baroque and unconstrained but this time, the characters seem to have emerged from a place that is more profound. I often compare our evolving artistic process to the image of a tree. The audience only sees the trunk, bark, branches and leaves. But the artist should be preoccupied by the growth happening underground, in that unseen network of roots digging erratically yet so expertly that it can hold, sustain and nurture the whole tree." Robert Lepage • The first version was premiered in Newcastle (UK) in February 2007. • The performance culminated in a nine hour epic journey in September 2008 in London (UK). Under the title FRAGMENTATION, a sequence of Lipsynch has been adapted by Robert Lepage for the stereoscopic environment ReACTOR designed by Sarah Kenderdine and Jeffrey Shaw. Text: Frédérike Bédard, Carlos Belda, Rebecca Blankenship, Lise Castonguay, John Cobb, Nuria Garcia, Marie Gignac, Sarah Kemp, Robert Lepage, Rick Miller, Hans Piesbergen Direction: Robert Lepage With: Frédérike Bédard, Carlos Belda, Rebecca Blankenship, Lise Castonguay, John Cobb, Nuria Garcia, Sarah Kemp, Rick Miller, Hans Piesbergen Dramaturgy Consultant: Marie Gignac Assistant Director: Félix Dagenais Set Designer: Jean Hazel Lighting Designer: Étienne Boucher Sound Designer: Jean-Sébastien Côté Costume Designer: Yasmina Giguère Assisted by: Jeanne Lapierre Props Designer: Virginie Leclerc Images produced by: Jacques Collin Wigs: Richard Hansen Creative Collaboration during rehearsals: Sophie Martin Production : Ex Machina and Théâtre Sans Frontières In association with Cultural Industry Ltd and Northern Stage Co-production: Arts 276/Automne en Normandie; barbicanbite08, London; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Cabildo Insular de Tenerife; Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Moscow; Festival de Otoño Madrid; Festival TransAmériques, Montréal; La Comète - Scène nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne; Le Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, Montréal; Le Volcan, Scène nationale du Havre; Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity; Napoli Teatro Festival Italia; The Sydney Festival; Wiener Festwochen 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.