A Bernard-Marie Koltès debut at TNC
'En la solitud dels camps de cotó' (In the Solitude of Cotton Fields) features Ivan Benet and Andreu Benito and is directed by Joan Ollé
Despite his short life and the brevity of his oeuvre, Bernard-Marie Koltès (Metz 1948 - Paris 1989) is considered to be a contemporary classic and his plays have been performed all around the world. Catalonia is no exception and local theatre figures like Sergi Belbel, Blai Bonet, Carme Portaceli and Maurici Ferré have all brought his work, including The Night Just Before the Forests, Quay West and Roberto Zucco, to the Catalan stage. However, Barcelona’s Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC) has yet to host a Koltès production, though that is about to change when, on 19 January, En la solitud dels camps de cotó debuts at the theatre’s Sala Petita.
Translated by Belbel, directed by Joan Ollé, and featuring Andreu Benito and Ivan Benet as the only members of the cast, this play, which was written in 1986, focuses on the dialogue between a drug dealer and his customer that vibrates with all of Koltès’s trademark experimental approach to drama.
On 27 January, the performance will be followed by a talk featuring the play’s staging manager and Josep Maria Esquirol Calaf, an essayist and professor of Philology at the University of Barcelona. The following day, there will also be a talk, on this occasion featuring the translator Sergi Belbel, as part of the first edition of the Barcelona French Drama Festival.
In the Solitude of Cotton Fields can be seen until 19 February.