Must-See: Canadian Stage’s revamped version of the Robert Lepage hallucinatory classic, Needles and Opium
Needles and Opium, an early Robert Lepage triumph, has been making heads spin for decades. Here, a look at the play’s over-the-top iterations
The imaginary worlds Robert Lepage builds onstage are always as rich, complex and baffling as a dream. Theatre, he has said, “is a sensuous experience.” And so his shows aim for sensory overload. His Cirque du Soleil extravaganza, Kà—on now in Las Vegas and housed in a purpose-built pavilion at the MGM Grand hotel—features a massive flaming wheel of death and a floating stage that rises and falls over a 50-foot abyss. In Playing Cards: Spades, which was mounted at last year’s Luminato Festival, actors and props emerged from a glowing pit in the centre of the stage like spells from a cauldron. His notorious production of the Ring Cycle at the Met took place on a 41-tonne set, with 24 moving planks that morphed into forests and snowy mountains. This month, Canadian Stage mounts a revamped version of Needles and Opium, the show that helped make Lepage a theatre star in the early ’90s. Based on the drug-addled lives of Miles Davis and Jean Cocteau, and inspired in part by a week-long bad trip Lepage experienced in high school, the play is appropriately hallucinatory—at one point, an out-of-his-head Cocteau flies above the New York skyline like a junkie Mary Poppins. Lepage has gone bigger since Needles and Opium, but he’s never gone wilder.
THEATRE
Needles and Opium
By Robert Lepage
Bluma Appel Theatre
Nov. 22 to Dec. 1
244972 Lepage as a strung-out Cocteau in a 1992 Brooklyn production of <em>Needles and Opium</em> (Image: Alastair Muir) Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A001-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A001.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A001.jpg 1000 667 [] https://torontolife.com/culture/robert-lepage-needles-and-opium/slide/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a001/ robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a001 0 0
(Image: Alastair Muir)
244973 Actor Marc Labrèche preparing to take over the role in 1994 (Image: Bengt Wanselius) Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A002-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A002.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A002.jpg 624 416 [] https://torontolife.com/culture/robert-lepage-needles-and-opium/slide/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a002/ robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a002 0 0
(Image: Bengt Wanselius)
244974 In the new version of the play, the stage is dominated by a giant, rotating cube, which transforms into a hotel room, a city street and a New York skyscraper (Image: Nicola Frank Vachon) Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A003-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A003.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A003.jpg 667 1000 {"copyright":"\u00a9Nicola-F Vachon"} https://torontolife.com/culture/robert-lepage-needles-and-opium/slide/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a003/ robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a003 0 0
(Image: Nicola Frank Vachon)
244975 Promotional material for a 1993 Tokyo production Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A004-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A004.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A004.jpg 293 624 [] https://torontolife.com/culture/robert-lepage-needles-and-opium/slide/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a004/ robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a004 0 0
244976 Lepage’s play is loaded with projected images of drugs and addiction (Image: Alan Crumlish) Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A005-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A005.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A005.jpg 416 624 [] https://torontolife.com/culture/robert-lepage-needles-and-opium/slide/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a005/ robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a005 0 0
(Image: Alan Crumlish)
244977 Marc Labrèche reprises his role as Cocteau in the new production (Image: Nicola Frank Vachon) Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week Must-See: Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium at the Bluma Appel Theatre, which opens next week https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A006-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A006.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-A006.jpg 1000 667 [] https://torontolife.com/culture/robert-lepage-needles-and-opium/slide/robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a006/ robert-lepage-needless-and-opium-a006 0 0
(Image: Nicola Frank Vachon)