by Robert Lepage and others (Ex Machina)
seen at the National Theatre (Lyttleton) on 6 March 2020
In contrast to the short plays currently featured at several theatres (the Bridge, the Donmar, the Orange Tree), Robert Lepage brings one of his sprawling epic productions to the Lyttleton for only eight performances - not surprising as the performance lasts for just over seven hours (including two intervals and a longer break - perhaps five and a half acting hours all told).
The free program provides a list of actors but no list of characters, and notes on various topics relevant to the play - the atomic bombs at the close of the Second World War and the subsequent US occupation of Japan; the Theresienstadt concentration camp; Madame Butterfly; the World Expo held in Osaka in 1970; Georges Feydeau; Yukio Mishima; Abbott and Costello; and the Butō dance tradition in Japan. From this wide-ranging list can be gleaned something of the scope of the play, which is divided (of course) into seven acts, starting in Hiroshima in 1945, moving to New York in 1965, Osaka in 1970, Amsterdam in 1985, and Hiroshima again in 1986, 1995 and 1999. These too are not listed in the program, but their number, name, location and date is projected at the start of each section.
