Festival Theatre
887
EICC
Linzi Devers
five stars
We, as people, all remember our childhoods and memories to different extents. Some in static monochrome, some in perfect technicolour.
Robert Lepage’s wonderland of miniature figures and revolving, changing sets is a prime example of the latter. The audience is invited warmly into Lepage’s long term memory - somewhere, in his own words, he was inspired to revisit following being instructed to learn the poem Speak White by Michele Lalonde. Lepage masterfully compares Quebecan culture to his childhood living at number 887 Murray Avenue using the individual stories of his own family and his neighbours.
With his intelligent use of electronics such as a projected screen with subtitles and an iPhone camera, Lepage manages to not only entice the audience with his charming humour and quick wit, but to teach a history lesson that anyone could listen to and understand. Not only that, but his all-round delivery and ability to hold one sided conversation whilst getting the comedic timing down to a tee made the performance all the more brilliant.
As far as autobiographies go and with the ironic mention of his own "cold cut" - the recording which will determine just how he is remembered after his death - this emotional phenomenon was not only thoroughly entertaining but left the audience almost completely stunned by the heavy message underlying. This in itself would be enough to draw in anybody but when added to the “perfect technicolour” of this piece, it is simply a bonus.
Linzi Devers is a pupil at Holyrood High School and this review was submitted as part of The Herald Young Critics project with the Edinburgh International Festival
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