He never knows where the next idea may come from . As we talk , he opens an envelope that ’ s just arrived in his office . Inside is a book about the Irish in Quebec sent to him by a preview audience member who thought it chimed with themes in 887 . Such outside eyes let him see his work from a different perspective . “ I have a plan , I have stuff I ’ d like to say , there are things I think I ’ m communicating , but people come up to me and they ’ ll say , ‘ Why is your character so condescending ?’ You realise that everything you ’ ve been doing has a tint of condescension that you didn ’ t want . The people working in the room won ’ t necessarily see that . The audience does .”
What makes Lepage unusual is that this kind of development continues beyond the public rehearsals and in front of a paying audience . His shows are fluid creations that never reach completion until the last night . As writer , director and actor , he allows his experiences around the world continually to feed back into the work . Early in 2015 , he had two try-out runs in France and the very act of performing outside of Quebec altered the material . It changed again when he brought it into the English language . In turn , the English affected the way he did it when he next performed in French .
“ The French in France is different to the French in Quebec ,” he says . “ Sometimes you understand the contrary and it can be very misleading . I still do it in Quebecois , but I have this filter where I ’ m going , ‘ Maybe I should change this word to that .’ That helps me decide what I ’ m trying to say . It ’ s less sloppy .
“ Then after that , an English translator comes in to translate this mumbo-jumbo improv . You sit with the translator and you say , ‘ Well , that ’ s not exactly what I meant .’ And they ’ ll say , ‘ Well , in English there ’ s a way of saying this .’ It ’ s like rewriting it , not translating it . So when I flip back to French , I can ’ t say what I used to say . I ’ ve learnt from the English translation . That ’ s one of the most important parts of the writing .”
Of course , the consequence of this is that Lepage makes his mistakes in public . It takes a particular sensibility to trust a show to grow in its own time and not be defeated by negative feedback . Comedy improvisers such as Ross Noble , Phil Kay and Paul Merton have something of the same present-tense approach and , indeed , the young Lepage was a leading light in a troupe of theatre-sports improvisers popular enough to land a three-year run on Quebec television . It seems to have given him a thicker than average skin .
“ I ’ ve had so many people write to newspapers saying , ‘ Lepage is over ,’ he laughs . “ Thank you , I ’ m free now to move on with my career and get on with the next thing . But I do care for what people think . I read the reviews and they ’ re part of the process . Critics and audiences are used to reviewing the final product that they ’ ve paid for and to judge it for what it is . I try to impose something where people go , ‘ Oh , I like that version ,’ or , ‘ It ’ s really good , but I think you should add this to it .’ If I feel I ’ ve done a bad show I ’ m disappointed , but I have another chance . When you do a bad movie , it ’ s over , but with theatre , the day after , you can make amends .”
This is especially the case for Lepage because of the international way he operates . Ex Machina ’ s production of 887 has a typical mix of funders : it was commissioned by the Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games , and co-produced by the Edinburgh International Festival along with a long list of presenters in France , Spain and Canada . As he sees it , this puts him in a privileged position . It doesn ’ t put him above criticism , but he can afford not to be preoccupied by the opinions of one small arts community .
“ Most people I know have to deal with the audience , the money that ’ s available to produce , and the criticism of this country , this province , sometimes of this city . Everybody ’ s locked into this thing , so , of course , if you get a bad review or you make a bad choice , you feel guilty . But we ’ re outside of all that . We have audiences all over the place . All these different audiences have their rules about accepting the work or not . If the New York reviews say that this show is horrible , I should learn from that , but my company will not die because a reviewer panned us in New York . I make a lot of bad choices , there ’ s a lot of trial and error but I don ’ t panic about it .”
►► Mark Fisher is a freelance writer .