Bernard-Marie Koltès
THE NIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE FORESTS / La nuit juste avant les forêts
Traslation: Suzana Koncut
Director: Ivica Buljan
Set design: Slaven Tolj
Music: Mitja Vrhovnik Smrekar
Actor: Robert Waltl
Duration: 45 minutes
Opening performance: June 2000
Production: Mini teater, Ljubljana and Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana
The French playwright and writer Bernard-Marie Koltès (Metz, 1948-1989) is considered to be a cult author of the French and European theatre of the eighties - mainly due to the topics dealts with in his drama work. He was fascinated by the trivial culture of the contemporary world: the film, the comics, the black chronique in newspapers. He was a great fan od Bruce Lee, of different fighting skills, television soap operas, and Bob Marley. He grew up with a very strict mother and her Christian education; his father, a military officer, was often absent. Koltes traveled a lot over countries of the Third World, mostly Central and south america and Africa, he liked to dwell in marginal environment, he often changed his sexual partners, he experienced the disappointment of the modern way of life. His way of living turned out to be destructive in the end since he died as one of the early victims of the 20th-century plague - aids. Koltes wrote his first drama text Sorrows in 1970. Up to the year 1977, he wrote eight drama texts and a novel, however, none of them was published. He received recognition of the critics and the public only in 1983 in the occasion of the putting on stage of the Fight of the Nigger with the Dogs, directed by Patrice Chereau. performances on Slovene stages so far: Western Moor, Roberto Zucco, In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, The Day of Murders in the Story of Hamlet. The drama text Night at the Edge of the Forests in the form of a monologue in one scene was written in 1977 and was put on stage within the Avignon Off Festival in the same year. The first performance of this text in Slovene was accompanied by the edition of three Koltes's texts in the book Koltes (In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, Night at the Edge of the Forests, and Tabataba); all three translated by Suzana Koncut.
The Nature of Night Just Before the Forest (La nuit juste avant les forêts) is quite different, however – a collage of non-psychological acting, non-acting and movement. It is concieved as a one-man show (a monologue) striving for the effect of modern spectacle, and making use of minimalist theatrical expression. Primarily, however, we witness one of the most challenging monologues in world literature.
On a rainy night, a stranger appears from the dark searching for shelter – a poor and exhausted man. Actor is forced to create the presence of Another not willing to respond.
According to Buljan, the staging of Koltes is extremely interesting. The author sets a variety of questions, placing us upon the mysterious crossroads without solving them, which is quit fortunate: if the text provided us with answers, theatre would no longer be necessary.
The performance was created within the international European project »Puppet Nomad Academy 1«, financially supported by the European Comission, programme Culture (2007-2013). This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Mini teater is engaged in several European projects, financially supported by the European Comission, programme Culture (2007-2013)
The programme and activity of Mini Teater is co-funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana - MOL.
