Robert Lepage's scenographic dramaturgy: the aesthetic signature at work

This text theorizes auteur Robert Lepage's scenography-based approach to adapting canonical texts.

Lepage's technique is defined here as 'scenographic dramaturgy', a process and product that de-privileges dramatic text and relies instead on evocative, visual performance and intercultural collaboration to re-envision extant plays and operas.

Following a detailed analysis of Lepage's adaptive process and its place in the continuum of scenic writing and auteur theatre, this book features four case studies charting the role of Lepage's scenographic dramaturgy in re-'writing' extant texts, including Shakespeare's 'Tempest' on Huron-Wendat territory, Stravinsky's 'Nightingale' in a 27 ton pool, and Wagner's 'Ring' cycle via the infamous, sixteen-million-dollar Metropolitan Opera production.