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ED2015 4/5 Reviews ED2015 Theatre Reviews
887 (Ex Machina / Robert Lepage)
By Rebecca Jacobson | Published on Thursday 27 August 2015
At the beginning of ‘887’, Robert Lepage mentions the memory palace, a mnemonic device that involves visualising a complex place and assigning information to each room. This autobiographical solo show makes the memory palace literal: Lepage, a Canadian known for his technical wizardry, shares the stage with a gorgeously intricate reconstruction of his family’s apartment building in Quebec City in the ’60s. At the time, French-speaking separatists were trying to establish a separate state, and Lepage intertwines historical anecdotes with stories from his youth and musings on the slipperiness of memory. It’s an overstuffed two hours – Lepage hangs the show on his attempts to memorise Michèle Lalonde’s ‘Speak White,’ a poem resisting Anglophone hegemony – but still a visual marvel, down to the scale-model crown molding and glittering Christmas tree.
Edinburgh International Conference Centre, until 23 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Rebecca Jacobson]