CLEAR your schedule: “Lipsynch” is the show to see right now.
Never mind that Canadian director Robert Lepage’s latest production is 8½ hours long (with several breaks). Or that it’s in English, French, Spanish and German (with translation, when needed).
This is genuinely entertaining stuff. Think of Dickens and “The Wire”: Nobody complains that they go on too long.
Lepage has said that “Lipsynch” is about voice, speech and language. But the show — written collaboratively by the actors — doesn’t hit you over the head with theory. It isn’t a didactic tract, but a real journey with flesh-and-blood characters imbued with genuine emotions. Several scenes had me in tears of laughter, while others simply had me in tears.
The show touches on singing, dubbing, bilingualism and schizophrenia. But these elements are integrated in a gripping story — or rather stories, as “Lipsynch” is divided into nine segments, each one focusing on a different character.
Among them are an opera singer dating a neurologist, a jazz performer trying to re-create her late father’s voice, a Scottish cop working on a murder case, the Spanish owner of a recording studio. Somebody in the background of one section steps to the forefront a couple of hours later; tossed-off details resurface in surprising ways.
It’s all held together by Lepage’s stagecraft. In the opening segment alone, years can pass in a flash while a single moment is beautifully drawn out. The director also mixes genres: Various sections borrow from farce, film noir, BBC kitchen-sink drama and backstage comedy.
Combine this with a highly ingenious modular set, and you’re not just watching stories unfold: You’re watching storytelling itself being created.
As the various strands constantly crisscross each other, Lepage never loses sight of a forward motion, and ends his mammoth endeavor with a stunning, ballsy single image that provokes simultaneous disbelief and awe. I literally was overwhelmed to see “Lipsynch” end.
elisabeth.vincentelli
@nypost.com