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Notes
1 The Far Side of the Moon, first performed 29 February 2000. This analysis is based on two performances: Lepage's, at the Royal National Theatre (London) in July 2001; and Yves Jacques's performance, at the Barbican (London), October 2003. Comments regarding affects reflect the first experience of the work: analysis of how the actor-object relationship created those affects benefits from a second exposure.
2 Lepage's Ex Machina collaborators include performers such as Marie Gignac and Peder Bjurman (who is programme-credited as artistic collaborator and project originator of TFSOTM), set designer Carl Fillion, image specialist Jacques Collin and puppeteers like Pierre Bernier and Normand Poirier. It is worth noting that TFSOTM won awards for Direction and Play, rather than for the individual skills of acting or puppetry.
3 His Dark Materials, The Wolves in the Walls, Avenue Q, The Lion King and Satyagraha are recent, high-profile examples of major theatre events incorporating puppets: ‘influential companies and artists of the stature of Theatre de Complicité, Improbable Theatre, Robert Lepage, Robert Wilson, Leigh Breuer and Théatre de Soleil [incorporate] puppetry as a vital component of their work’ (Dean Citation2001: 3).
4 In this I am following Steve Tillis's suggestion that ‘If the signification of life can be created by people, then the site of that signification is to be considered a puppet. This definition is revolutionary … expanding the realm of puppetry beyond all definitions that centre upon the materiality of the puppet’ (Tillis Citation1999: 185). Anon-figurative object functions as a puppet if the significations it is invested with create the illusion that it has ‘life’, or semiotic agency: as Tillis argues elsewhere, ‘puppetry is a function of audience perception and imagination’ (Tillis Citation1992: 142).
Photo: © Sophie Grenier
Photo: © Sophie Grenier
Photo © Sophie Grenier