In 1975, Simon is 17 years old. He has his own room in the basement of a pavilion in Courville, a widowed mother mixed up with a shifty uncle, an involuntary and painfully permanent tattoo on his chest, a female friend who woos him without much success and a male friend who is as clueless as he is athletic. The coming year will precipitate things, the social unrest that is gradually taking place will find dramatic and decisive echoes in the life of the young man. Inspired by Japanese culture, Robert Lepage sketches the portrait of a complex adolescence and borrows from the ancestral technique of Japanese Bunraku. He will be the narrator on stage and create a spellbound story inside a piece of history.

Ex Machina

Founded in 1994, Ex Machina is a multidisciplinary company bringing together actors, writers, set designers, puppeteers, contortionists and musicians. The creative team of Ex Machina believes that the performing arts - dance, opera, music - should be mixed with recorded arts - filmmaking, video art and multimedia with new artistic forms emerging from the diverse gatherings. Ex Machina wants to rise to the challenge and become an incubator for a form of theatre that will reach and touch audiences from this new millennium.

Production Team

Written, designed and directed by Robert Lepage

Design & Creative Director / Steve Blanchet

Assistant Director / Francis Beaulieu

Puppeteer / Wellesley Robertson III, Caroline Tanguay, Martin Vaillancourt

Associate Set Design / Ariane Sauvé

Puppet Design & Building / Jean-Guy Whit, Céline White

Composer & Sound Design / Mathieu Doyon

Image Design / Félix Fradet-Faguy

Lighting Design / Nicolas Descôteaux

Costume Design / Virginie Leclerc

Properties Design / Jeanne Lapierre

Co-Production / National Taichung Theater, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts - Weiwuying, Le Diamant, Quebec City, Le Volcan - scène nationale du Havre, La Comète - scène nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne