Playing Cards: SPADES

SPADES is the first part in a series of four performances by the Canadian director Robert Lepage, the 'master wizard' of modern theatre. Lepage has gained international fame with the virtuoso theatre shows he creates with his own production company Ex Machina and as a guest director for Cirque du Soleil and others. 

Production for the tetralogy of which SPADES is the first part started in 2010 and will run into 2015. Under the umbrella title Playing Cards Lepage has devised four shows which represent the four suits of Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds, with all four referring in their content as well to a game of cards.

In late medieval Arabic and European card games, the Spade suit was also called Swords, and represented the military classes. In analogy, in Lepage's piece Spades is equated with attack, waging war and taking risks. In addition, a number of characters in SPADES reflect Tarot cards, which are a predecessor of our modern card decks. The Fool represents the corrupting devil, the Lovers are the newly married couple and the Hanged Man is the soldier. The Emperor's obsession with power, money and success reflects that of the television producer; the desire for domination by the Empress resonates in the sado-masochistic prostitute the soldier turns to. The Wheel of Fortune is the city of Las Vegas, gambling mekka of the world where this first part of Lepage's tetralogy is set, during the early days of the American war in Iraq in 2003. 

While the American president George W. Bush and his government are taking risks with the lives of their soldiers, the Iraqi people and the fate of the world, we visit the casino's on the Strip, the city itself and the surrounding desert to follow a variety of characters whose lives cross at a decisive point: from a British businessman who cannot control his gambling to a hotel maid who steals from the customers in order to pay her medical costs and a Danish soldier who is humiliated during an exercise in the torrid desert heat. Combined, these stories make up a contemporary mythology of seduction, excess, risk and recklessness, full of illusions, escape art and hypnotising choreography. 

There are just six actors playing a total of 30 characters, but thanks to the ingenious stagecraft of Lepage and his crew and of course the skills of the actors, the audience do not notice this at all. It's even more of a feat when you realise that SPADES is a 360 degrees in the round performance, the first in a total of four performances which Lepage and his company Ex Machina have planned for the next few years. HEARTS premiered in October 2013, and will be followed by DIAMONDS and CLUBS. For SPADES, Lepage has, with his team led by designer Jean Hazel, created a round stage with a rotating outer ring which is mounted in the middle of the auditorium, surrounded by the audience. At the Holland Festival, the venue for SPADES will be De Gashouder. The actors enter the stage from underneath the stage; there are no stage exits left or right. The sets and props are hidden in the stage and in the installation which hangs above the stage, allowing Lepage and his crew to make them appear and disappear with lightning speed. The piece is full of illusion and escape art; the scenes follow on from each other seamlessly, the sets changing from a hotel room to a roulette table, a swimming pool, airport or desert in an instant.

This 'vertical' form of theatre (compared to the traditional end theatre) demands not only a sophisticated technical approach but also a different way of acting and even writing for the stage. It forces you to introduce characters which are more metaphoric and more mythic, according to Lepage. 'You […] bring in characters from heaven and hell,' he explained in an interview. For the actors this means that they have to adopt a more physical style of acting. 'You have to carry your voice, to fill the house. And not to direct your energy towards the house.' For the audience the 360 degrees in the round theatre means a whole different experience as well. They will interpret dialogues or scenes on the basis of the reactions of the actors and at the same time they will see the reactions of the audience on the other side. It's a dynamic which creates an intimate atmosphere, making it an adventure which the audience embark on together.