The French Canadian director Robert Lepage (1957, Quebec Ciy) is internationally acclaimed for his groundbreaking performances, especially through the use of new technologies. As well as a very successful theatre and opera director, he's also a playwright and script writer and has directed six feature films.

Lepage attended the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec and spent a year studying in Paris before he started his career acting, writing and directing in his hometown. In 1980 he joined the Théâtre Repère, creating Circulations in 1984, the play which marked his breakthrough in Canada.

From 1989 until 1993, Lepage was artistic director of the Théâtre français of The National Arts Centre in Ottawa, directing, amongst others, Needles and Opium and a number of Shakespeare plays.

In 1994, he established his multidisciplinary production company Ex Machina. As artistic director of Ex Machina he has built an impressive body of work over the past twenty years, including his theatre productions The Seven Streams of the River Ota (1994), Elsinore (1995), The Dragons’ Trilogy (2003), Lipsynch (2007), The Blue Dragon (2008), Eonnagata (2009) and the Evening Standard Award winning The Far Side of The Moon (2000).

As well as theatre, Lepage has also directed and produced opera. His credits include Bluebeard’s Castle (1993), 1984 with the Royal Opera House in London (2005), Stravinksy’s The Rake’s Progress with La Monnaie in Brussels (2007), Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen with The Metropolitan Opera New York (2010-2012) and The Tempest by Thomas Adès in 2012. In 2012 De Nederlandse Opera staged his directions of Le Rossignol and Renard (Stravinsky).

Lepage is also famous for the spectacular performances he has directed for Cirque du Soleil, including Totem, which had its European premiere in Amsterdam in 2010. In 2007 Lepage was awarded the prestigious Prix Europe.