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| Marc Labreche in "Needles & Opium" (photo: Nicola-Frank Vachon) |
ArtsEmerson's current production of “Needles and
Opium” is a trip in several meanings of the term. Written and
Directed by Robert LePage (“The Andersen Project”), founder of
his own Ex Machina, a multidisciplinary production
company in Canada, and designer of the 2012 “Ring Cycle” at the
Metropolitan Opera, this is one tour de force of what might be
termed cubism, though LePage doesn't follow the rules of any form,
but shatters and reassembles them.
Written by LePage in1991 after a break-up with his
lover, this piece of performance art features a Québécois
also named Robert (originally played by LePage himself, played
here by Marc Labrèche)
who has checked into the Parisian Hotel La Louisiane, Room Number 9,
in withdrawal from a romantic crisis. The room is the same one in
which Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre once lived, a reflection of
Robert's own current torment as well as that of famous jazz musician
Miles Davis (played by Wellesley Robertson III) and filmmaker Jean
Cocteau (played by Labrèche) who are also featured in this work in
scenes taking place some forty years prior. Cocteau had become
addicted to opium, Davis to heroin, while Robert's addiction is to
love. When they were each at the very top of their respective
careers, they cross in the sky when Cocteau flies to New York and
Davis takes a flight to Paris. In his “Letter to Americans”,
Cocteau questions whether pain should be considered a sine
qua non of
creative genius and whether one's sadness may be transformed into
beauty. The play's action takes place entirely within a rotating cube
as the actors search for their proper places, literally and, more
important, figuratively, while the world transitions from the
technology of the mechanical age to that of the postmodern.
It's
avant-garde
theater at
its most visually stunning. The concepts of space/time movement and
the continuum of life are creatively illustrated with some of the
most awe-inspiring magic one could ever hope to see. This is greatly
achieved and enhanced by the Set Design by Carl Fillion, which often
defies description, as well as the musical pieces chosen, ranging
from Davis'
jazz works to Rodgers and Hart's “My Funny Valentine” and Kern
and Fields' “The Way You Look Tonight”, with Music and Sound
Design by Jean-Sébastien Côté, Lighting Design by Bruno Matte,
Costume Design by François St-Aubin, Image Design by Lionel Arnould
and Technical Direction by Michel Gosselin. The text as noted is by
LePage, in an English translation by Jenny Montgomery.
The
physical requirements for the actors are demanding, as they
transverse the cube center stage, and both Labrèche and Robertson
are amazing. One negative note is the difficulty in understanding the
monologue by the character Cocteau due to his heavy French accent.
Yet that's a minor complaint when one is presented with such visuals.
Not unlike the production for the Met, (which was controversial in
opera circles), the mechanics of this work are complex and precisely
timed. It's no wonder that the huge tech team took bows alongside the
actors. And about
that trip: in production notes in the program, Rob Orchard
(ArtsEmerson's Founder and Creative Consultant) writes that “as a
tourist you'll be frustrated by a trip with Robert LePage; as a
traveler, you'll be transported.”
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