Needles and Opium for Adelaide Festival
In March 2014 Australia will host an exclusive restaging of legendary Canadian theatre-maker Robert Lepage’s masterpiece, Needles and Opium.
Presented by the Adelaide Festival, this is a stunning production with mesmerizing effects; a spellbinding journey into the night.
The fascinating, introspective show is presented as a hypnotic series of fictional vignettes. It explores the complex relationships between displacement, drug addiction and creative drive, revealed through the lives of Parisian poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau on his way to New York, as well as American jazz legend Miles Davis during his stay in Paris in 1949.
The production is presented by Theatre du Trident, Quebec; Canadian Stage, Toronto, and Theatre du Nouveau Monde, Montreal.
The show has been completely reworked in the years since it was last presented in the 1994 Sydney Festival. It combines new scenography with original images, an acrobat who complements Cocteau’s text, together with sensitive, ingenious performances by Marc Labreche and Wellesley Robertson III.
Best known for his epic plays, Robert Lepage forged his reputation by creating innovative productions in which technology is used in considered and creative treatments. When it was first presented twenty years ago Needles and Opium established him as one of Canada’s most revered artists.
In addition to being a renowned playwright Lepage is equally talented as a director, actor and film director. His unique approach to theatre has won him international acclaim, as well as shaking the notion of classical stage direction to its foundations. The latter is particularly due to his use of new technologies.
Recognition for Lepage’s work includes the Legion d’honneur (2002), the Gascon Thomas Award (2003), the Hans Christian Anderson Prize (2004), the Stanislavski Award (2005), the distinguished Prix Europe (2007) and the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT (2012).
Adelaide audiences will surely flock to see Needles and Opium, welcoming the return of the company that brought The Seven Streams of the River Ota to the 1998 Adelaide Festival.
Lesley Reed
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au or BASS 131 246
Dates: March 13-14, 8pm; March 15, 2pm and 8pm; March 16, 5pm.
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
Tickets: $30-$89.