ARTicles vol. 3 i.2a: the creation of the moon

With all the acclaim surrounding the far side of the moon, Robert Lepage’s exploration of narcissism, sibling rivalry, and man’s place within the cosmos, it seems hard to believe that an accidental encounter with a broken washing machine led to its conception. Lepage wanted to create a piece that would incorporate his long-held fascination with space exploration. He chose as his subject American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, and his readjustment to the mundanity of life on Earth after such an extraordinary experience. In the midst of his research, Lepage lost his mother to illness; suddenly orphaned, he felt the need to create a piece about her to help him through the grieving process. Both ideas stalled in development until an unusual discovery provided the missing link. Walking by an alley, Lepage noticed the front window of a washing machine lying in the garbage. He re-called the times his mother took him to the laundromat as a child, when a washing machine doubled as the portal of a space shuttle: “I suddenly thought, ‘Maybe these two shows are one and the same. Perhaps there’s a connection between my early years and the space race.'” By intertwining the story of the space race between the U.S. and the Soviets with a personal meditation on the effect of losing a parent on sibling relations, Lepage and his theatre company Ex Machina created a piece at once technically dazzling and deeply emotional. the far side of the moonis an autobiographical tale of two estranged brothers, Philippe and André, brought together by the death of their mother. Philippe, a lonely academic struggling to have his graduate dissertation approved after two failed attempts, stumbles through daily life as a telemarketer. More a philosopher than a scientist, Philippe’s preoccupation with the infinite universe finds new relevance when confronted with the loss of his mother. His gay younger brother André, who wallows in shallow, material success as a television weatherman, is preoccupied with looking good and making money. The mother’s tragic death forces both men to reexamine their chosen paths and to connect with a larger transcendent and unknown cosmos. Lepage grew up during the peak of the Soviet-U.S. space race in the 1950s and 1960s, a competition that was as much about political hubris as science, and he vividly recalls the startling photographs plastered across the television. Images of the sun rising on the lunar horizon and of the unseen “disfigured” underside of the moon altered his perception of himself and his place in the world. The unanswered questions about the role of mankind in the expanse of the cosmos heavily inform his work on the far side of the moon; Lepage juxtaposes this uncertain universe with the eternal quest to comprehend death. Are we alone? Is there a life beyond death? What do we hope to discover? While the far side of the moonis a simple narrative of two brothers mourning the death of a parent, the impact of the story is realized through the technical wizardry that defines the work of Lepage and Ex Machina. Every detail adds another layer to the mosaic of stage images. The central design concept arose through another accident during rehearsals. With a mirror angled on the set at forty-five degrees, Lepage noticed that the reflection of a roll of tape passing by provoked the sensation of weightlessness. The illusion of space without gravity makes the effect magical without having to rely on complicated technology. The foundation of the set is a cinematic letterbox, extra wide with a low head, made of blackboard backdrops that form screens for videos and slides or open to reveal cupboards, sitting rooms, and lecture halls. A living entity rather than an inert background, the set consists of sliding panels, swivelling mirrors, precision lighting, and projected video that reshape the space with unexpected freedom and flexibility. Images and scenes bleed together seamlessly as the action moves from an elevator to a conference room, from a weather desk to an airplane. The production creates unexpected theatrical images out of the banality of everyday life. An ironing board becomes a workout bench and later an MRI table. The circular window of a washing machine transforms into the hatch of a space craft, a goldfish bowl, and the moon with ease. To complement the illusory character of space, Lepage commissioned performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson to compose an original score. She created twenty-four distinct pieces that animate the phases of the moon and add emotional resonance. Music interacts with the narrative to create a poetry of illusions evoking weightlessness and vertigo, effects not only of space travel but also, according to Lepage, of losing a parent. the far side of the moonwas born out of Lepage’s fascination with the gadgets and poetry of space travel. What began as a detached exploration of man’s role in the universe transformed into an emotional journey through the phases of human life. Robert Lepage has created a show that displays a mastery of technique without sacrificing tenderness, and that connects intimately with audiences: “To create a show that’s moving, what you need is not to express as much emotion as possible, but to stylise the emotion, to represent it or to symbolise it. The results are much more enduring and convincing.” Stella Gorlin is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.