La Mama Theatre present in the solitude of cotton fields By Bernard-Marie Koltes A short, sharp, relentless encounter between two men on either side of a great divide. If you’re out, here and now, it’s because you want something you don’t have, And I can get it for you. [The Dealer: In the Solitude of Cotton Fields]
The simple act of buying and selling lies at the heart of our consumerist/capitalist society. Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice as capitalism developed in the West. Arthur Miller wrote The Death of a Salesman when its golden age in North America had begun to wane. The dark heart of capitalism rose to the surface in the 1980s with Wall Street and American Psycho. We now have at the head of the world’s leading economy, an oldstyle snake-oil salesman par excellence.
In the Solitude of Cotton Fields (1985), takes the central contract of the sale – ‘You want something you don’t have, And I can get it for you.’ and interrogates it to the bitter end: outside of any other context.
Late at night in a dark alley, two men meet. One has something to sell and believes that the other has something he wishes to buy. The other protests, no, he wants nothing! But of course, deep down he must desire something, and whatever it is the seller has it for him. ‘Every citystreet is a stage; every staging, a stage of desire.’ (Robin Robertson)
All is stripped away apart from the two traders: the Dealer and the Client.
Solitude presents human interaction as nothing more than a deal based on desire, an elusive transaction in a society of uneasy alliances where everything is up for negotiation and bartering is a way of life. Solitude has been provocative from the outset. The first production at the Edinburgh Festival was seen as ‘potentially the riskiest Festival venture’ but was ‘a stunning success’ with audiences.
‘Who are these characters,’ asked a reviewer, ‘with their talk of light and darkness, life and death, goodness and evil, peace and war? Are they individuals, social classes, races, nations? Is the deal life itself and the Client’s walk life’s journey? Is the Dealer’s offer not sex or illicit substances but the promise and peril of human existence, a transaction that carries with it an inescapable conclusion?’
Provocative it may be, but as the continuing success of Solitude throughout five continents has proven, this is not a solemn play of ideas. Koltes builds the suspense of the encounter with a unique mix of suspense, humour, mystery, philosophy and terror. Until the chilling, unexpected conclusion.
Director: Richard Murphet
Cast: Rob Meldrum and Tom Dent
Sound Design: Adam Casey
Lighting Design: John Collopy
The Artists include: Richard Murphet.
Recent productions at La Mama:
• In 2015, a double-bill of his own plays Quick Death and Slow Love ‘It is the physicality of the production which most impresses. We sense the possibility of something new, something beyond the serried repetitions of the silver screen.’ RealTime
• In 2016, the Australian premiere of the psychological thriller, Courage To Kill, by Swedish playwright Lars Noren.
• In 2017, Absence of Knowing, a double-bill by Belgian playwright, Elvis Peeters, ‘This is what the theatre can be… And those engaged in the craft should see and remember this. productions such as this that may be all we have left to sustain communities in that desire to express the inexpressible. Please, do get along and see it.’
Tony Reck Theatre Blog. Rob Meldrum.
Recent Productions at La Mama: • Marguerite Duras: L’Amante Anglais (Greenroom Award Winner) • Eugene Ionesco: The Chairs (directed by Jenny Kemp)
DATE 17 – 28 April 2019
TIME Wed 6.30pm | Thu – Sat 7.30pm | Sun 4pm
DURATION Approximately 75 minutes
VENUE La Mama Courthouse 349 Drummond Street, Carlton
TICKETS $30 Adult | $20 Concession
BOOKINGS 03 9347 6948 or www.lamama.com.au
