In the Solitude of Cotton Fields
Bernard-Marie Koltès’ plays are mythical exaggerations of reality and always take place outside, often at dusk, in the transition from day to night. Where other authors work with changes of place and time, time always runs linearly in Koltès’ plays, without interruption from the beginning to the end of the play. It is the here and now in which people meet, approach, and repel each other, run into walls, fight, get lost in their language, and try to formulate what interests them, a conversation with obstacles in which the physical presence of the bodies is more important than their metaphor.
In the Solitude of Cotton Fields is written for two actors and is about a salesman’s nocturnal encounter with a customer: the salesman tries to identify the customer’s desires in order to make him an offer, which in turn opens up a comprehensive capitalist discussion of the principles of acquiring these goods. It is a skillful game, driven by the emptiness of a system that presupposes the “wishing” of the consumer in order to exist itself. A game in which a complex exploration of the worlds and their value systems begins, a struggle for understanding.
Thirty years after its premiere, the rarely performed text by Koltès is brought to the stage by Christiane Jatahy as a unique experience for actors and audience alike, turning the theater into a place where two strangers meet. While five actors of the Thalia ensemble assume the role of the “dealer”, they meet each evening another “client”, every performance played by a different refugee. Different every evening, as a neverending cycle of encounters at dusk, where each time a new deal is brokered.
In the Solitude of Cotton Fields
by Bernard- Marie Koltès
Directed by Christiane Jatahy
With Sandra Flubacher Julian Greis, Franziska Hartmann, Daniel Lommatzsch, Tim Porath
Set and light design Thomas Walgrave
Artistic collaboration Henrique Mariano
Simultaneous translation and assistant director Juliane Elting
Costumes Sina Brüggemann
Dramaturgy Sandra Küpper
Assistant director Agnes Oberauer
Assistant set designer Sina Brüggemann
Prompter Anja Haß
Internship Hisham Mahmood, Ahmed Said (director)
Technical management Thalia Gaußstraße, Jan Wiechmann
Stage technology Markus Alsen
Lighting Susanne Ostwald, Benjamin Blessing, Tilmann Cassens, Malte Zimmermann
Sound/video technology Tim Jarchow, Jacob Rothstein
Make-up Julia Wilms
Costume workshops Ann-Katrin Mohr
Costume masters Christian Pursch, Beate Dünnwald
Props Ralf Gebert, Ulrike Rustemeyer-Kötter, Kirsten Stahnke
Painting room Marten Voigt
Joinery Peter Bruns
Locksmith Peter Büttner
Upholstery Michael Breiholz
Costume painting Klaudia Noltensmeyer
Technical conception Andreas Dietz
Workshop management Thomas Mundt
Special thanks to
Mostafa Ahmadi, Qasim Ahmed, Ghodrat Aria, Shorouk el Hariry, Mohammad Kayali, Samson Mebrahtu, Mohammad Javid Mohammadi, Emmanuel Luka Musa, Malika Musaeva, Kais Razouk, Mohammad Jawad Rostami, Ashutosh Sharma
Production : Thalia Theater
More information here : https://www.thalia-theater.de/en/play/in-der-einsamkeit-der-baumwollfelder-2017
