By James Hadley in London

It's rare to see certain internationally renowned theatre makers in New Zealand outside of the International Arts Festival context. Being in London, for the sake of my bank balance, I have to adjust to the fact that those 'once in a lifetime' theatregoing opportunities come along on an almost weekly basis. Most recently this was the opportunity to see Robert Lepage's new nine hour long show, Lipsynch at the Barbican Centre. By James Hadley in London

It's rare to see certain internationally renowned theatre makers in New Zealand outside of the International Arts Festival context. Being in London, for the sake of my bank balance, I have to adjust to the fact that those 'once in a lifetime' theatregoing opportunities come along on an almost weekly basis. Most recently this was the opportunity to see Robert Lepage's new nine hour long show, Lipsynch at the Barbican Centre.I hadn't been converted by the inspiringly innovative stage craft that is Lepage's genius when his seven hour long production of 'The Seven Streams of the River Ota' played in one NZ International Arts Festival, but I remember hearing about it's length at the time and thinking it sounded like a feat of endurance. But as anyone who attends his productions soon realises, the varied courses of one of these theatrical tapestries are like a wonderful banquet, and it's a gift that these works force their audiences to take time out from life's usual busy pace. Thankfully I did get to see his revival of 'The Dragons Trilogy' when that came to Wellington a few years ago. I think that was about six hours long, and possibly a stronger work overall than this new production, which has some technical and dramaturgical weaknesses in its middle sections in particular. But these only seem so because other sections of the work approach theatrical perfection in their composition. The nine hours of this work just flew by.

I was watching the show with not one but four other graduates of Victoria University's Theatre department - all of us converted into Lepage-lovers by his inclusion on some of the courses there. We were sitting in various different locations around the Barbican's main venue, which thankfully has the most comfortable seats and biggest legroom of any London theatre I've yet experienced. As the work has not one but five intervals, including a 45 minute meal break, it's an incredibly social way to watch theatre, and alongside our group's shared picnicking in every interval I also got to know the drama student sitting beside me, because you're co-existing for a similar amount of time to a longhaul flight.

'Lipsynch', like most of Lepage's recent productions, is multi-lingual, and jumps countries and time periods with deceptive fluidity. Each of its nine sections is a montage of scenes focussed on a different character. Usually these characters are somehow linked into each other's stories in that familiar six-degrees-of-separation way, but the connections are far from cliched. Some have criticised the clunkiness of the set, which requires more stagehands to operate than the nine strong cast. It's true that the various flipping panels, and airplane interiors which convert into tube train interiors which convert into radio studios etc do hold up proceedings quite frequently. But perhaps London theatre goers are overly used to the smooth efficiency of hydraulic stagings in big budget musicals here. I was so won over by the wholehearted performances and general imaginativeness of the production as a whole that I wouldn't want to criticise.

It would take me pages to write about the whole show here - if you're interested there are lots of good reviews on the internet (you could start with this rave from The Independent'.

Suffice to describe a few moments from the beginning of the show, which were a highlight. It began with a rather tall female opera singer performing Gorecki's heart-rending 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'. As the music continued once she had finished singing, she re-entered as if returning to her seat from the bathroom within an international aircraft in midair. She stoops to pick up a baby's toy that's been dropped in the aisle, returning it to the lap of the sleeping mother. An air hostess serves drinks to the passengers as the baby begins to cry. Eventually other passengers get irritated, and the opera singer senses - in parallel to the audience - that something must be wrong for the mother not to wake. She goes to the young woman and fails to wake her, as does the hostess. A doctor is found among the passengers, but resuscitation fails. The young woman's body is removed, and the opera singer is left holding the now orphaned baby. It's probably the most effective beginning of a play I've ever seen, in terms of thoroughly involving the audience into the heart of a complex plotline - and not a single line has yet been spoken! The rest of the first section of the play follows the opera singer's story, and other sections trace the future life of the baby once adult and the tragic backstory of the young mother - each of these interlinking stories taking place in several different countries. This was such well constructed theatre-making that, recounting scenes to my flatmate the morning after, they moved me to tears for a second time through the act of remembering how moving the viewing experience had been.

Image: 'NZ playwright Sonal Patel and actor Erica Lowe outside the Barbican - two of five Victoria University grads attending 'Lipsynch' together.'

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Feel free to get in touch with any questions (or if you're planning a London visit and want some theatre recommendations) to jamesstuarthadley@gmail.com

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22/09/08