The Dramatic Art of Robert Lepage: Fragments of Identity1

Abstract

In this article, Josette Féral argues that one of the reasons for Lepage's phenomenal success springs from the fact that his audiences, no matter what their cultural origins, unconsciously find in his work the model of today's constructions of identity, and the values linked to them. Lepage's work reflects the fabrication of our identities as ‘subjects’ in a society where the sense of the collective and of the ethical gradually begin to reassert themselves. Féral draws on the work of the influential contemporary philosopher Charles Taylor in constructing her argument. Unlike several other thinkers – Christopher Lasch, Gilles Lipovetsky, Daniel Bell – whose earlier works bring to light the ills of contemporary individualism, Charles Taylor argues for the ideal of authenticity and affirmation of self only if it is accompanied by a quest for ethical and moral values. These reflections find fertile ground for actualization in the way that Lepage conceives his characters, and makes them evolve. This is what Féral's analysis attempts to show, by considering the three principles that define identity according to Taylor: identity seen as a quest for authenticity, the necessity of a ‘common horizon of meanings’, and the artistic creation as paradigm of the quest for authenticity.