Two months before the premiere, Robert Lepage lifted the veil on his creation by painter Jean Paul Riopelle, which will have its world premiere on April 25.
The Riopelle project will feature nine actors who will play 80 characters. It will be performed 30 times at the Jean-Duceppe Theater in Montreal from April 25 to June 8 and 28 times at Le Diamant in Quebec City from October 19 to November 19.
Luc Picard in the role of Riopelle, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Gabriel Lemire and Richard Fréchette are part of the distribution.
“It’s one of the best documented shows I’ve worked on. The life of Riopelle is half a century of history. It’s been three years of research,” creator-director Robert Lepage explained during a press conference on Monday.
The creator has made a promise to the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation, which commissioned this creation, to mark the 100th birthday of the Quebec painter, to make him say things he really said.
The Riopelle Project focuses on the career of Jean Paul Riopelle from his entry into the École du Meubles in 1944 to the production of his work Rosa Luxemburg.
Photo provided by Francois Latulippe
Luc Picard as Jean Paul Riopelle during rehearsals at Le Diamant.
“I thought it was important that we talk about him. Everyone knows the name, but very few know the work of Riopelle. It is also a universal work that speaks of us,” he said, surrounded by Luc Picard and Gabriel Lemire, who will play the young Riopelle.
Luc Picard explains that the show is a journey through time.
“Between 1940 and 1992 there was the episode of Refus Global during the Great Darkness in Quebec and then the 1960s with the Quiet Revolution. It’s going to be like a historical fresco,” said the actor, who will be playing Riopelle.
“Upon his return from France, Riopelle finds that Quebec has changed. There has been a social change,” added Robert Lepage.
Photo archive, Agency QMI
Jean-Paul Riopelle
a secret man
The show begins its final week of creation at the Lepage Beaulieu Studio. On Monday we could see a huge white screen, like a blank canvas, which, when lifted, reveals a row of easels and canvases.
“There will be performances and dancing. We will not reveal all secrets. It is a multidisciplinary show modeled on these avant-garde artists. All possible disciplines are used. We can’t know if it will be 3 hours, 3:30 hours, 4 hours, 4:30 hours, we will say in due course,” he said.
“You can’t describe life in an hour and a half,” observed Robert Lepage.
Luc Picard, Gabriel Lemire and even Robert Lepage admit that they were no Riopelle specialists when they embarked on this adventure.
“He’s an impossible man to pin down who spoke very little about himself and had a boastful side. He didn’t reveal much. I attacked this character with an outside vision,” said Luc Picard, who for several years dreamed of working with the man he dubbed the theater’s Cecil B. DeMille.
Montreal tickets are on sale and Diamond tickets are online only. They will be offered at the checkout from Wednesday noon.