When is an ironing board not an ironing board? When it's an exercise bicycle, moped, hospital gurney, weight-training contraption - in short, whatever performer Yves Jacques and Qubecois creator/director Robert Lepage want us to believe it is. The window in a washing machine becomes the porthole in a spaceship through which a tiny cosmonaut tumbles into the laundromat. But the porthole is also a fishbowl in which Beethoven, a goldfish, swims round and endlessly round like an astronaut lost forever, like our planet spinning through space.
This theatrical magic carpet ride explores the relationship between Philippe, his flamboyant, recently deceased mother and his estranged brother Andr. Amazingly, Lepage fuses this story with the American/Russian race to dominate space.
Lepage is famous for his spectacular staging and the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, a state-of-the-art venue, is perfectly equipped to do justice to Lepage's technical and aesthetic genius.
But it's not all just smoke and mirrors - although the most stunning visual is a mirror stretching from stage left to stage right. Yves Jacques - playing both Philippe and Andr as well as their mother - draws us into the sibling rivalry that extends right into adulthood and Philippe's painful recognition that he was not his mother's favourite. Jacques, a soft-spoken performer (who, on occasion, was difficult to hear) paints a clear picture of brash, self-important weatherman Andr and uncertain, gay, cultural philosophy student Philippe.
The show has changed considerably since 2002 when it was presented at The Playhouse: it's more playful and yet more emotionally involving. What remains the same is the last staggeringly beautiful scene underscored by Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata: Philippe tumbling weightlessly and joyfully through space. Don't even breathe; this is beauty of cosmic proportions.
Lepage replaces Jacques in the role from Nov. 6 to 10.
The Far Side of the MOOn
At Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, SFU Woodward's until Nov. 10
Tickets: 604-251-1363
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