Needles and Opium / Robert Lepage - Ex Machina

First things first : the production is stunning, and the word “production” is important here. The technology does get in the way of perception at times, but I am still giving Lepage tons of credit for audacity and vision and for the poignant sense of loneliness that every one of his plays transmits. Way to go and it’s my goal to see more of his works.

Marc Labrèche is a true discovery for me here, he is amazing, one of the best actors I've seen on stage. A special treat was seeing him out of character during the after show talk with the audience. He was a delight.

Post-perfomance talk with Marc Labrèche of Needles and Opium (Robert Lepage - Ex Machina)

Thinking about how this amazing production exists in its two linguistic incarnations (original French and English), I can't help wondering about the content shifts. One such shift is actually an aspect of Needles and Opium that I think is completely obscure for the English-language audience. I haven't seen discussed it anywhere yet, but I think it actually ties together all three characters. (The protagonist is a Quebecois in Paris suffering from a broken heart, and the two other characters on stage are Jean Cocteau and Miles Davis and it all does sound bizarre when told like that, in prose...)

I wonder if I am picking it up correctly, but to me the connection between the three characters has to do with the issue directly addressed in the monolog about Quebec’s history in the 20th century and its “quiet” struggle for independence. In the 20-th century discourse of the difficult French vs. Anglo-Canadian relationship the French were openly identified with the slaves, they were the Canadian “blacks”. “Speak white!” is a phrase that the “Anglos” would throw at a French Canadian and it meant “Speak English!” (see Michèle Lalonde read her iconic poem on this subject). So, the three characters of the play represent the protagonist – a French Canadian – stretched between his two historical identities: the French one and the black one. All three going through personal struggle and finding the salvation in art/opiatic “dreams”, which is the highest form of the spiritual life, according to the author. (The idea that the French Canadians are “entertainers” also is expressed clearly in that political monologue, and for a reason). Of course, the protagonist is left to struggle with his demons because as he tells at the very end, not everyone has the genius of Cocteau or Miles Davis.

So to me, the play starts out as a personal story but somehow miraculously changes scale and becomes a reflection on something a lot larger. However, there is no doubt that although the national note might be lost for the English-language audience, the production has enough depth and levels to magnetize hearts and minds of any audience.