{"id":561,"date":"2023-05-26T11:03:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T11:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/?p=561"},"modified":"2023-05-31T16:52:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T16:52:13","slug":"john-malkovich-explores-two-levels-of-a-koltes-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/john-malkovich-explores-two-levels-of-a-koltes-character\/","title":{"rendered":"John Malkovich Explores Two Levels of a Kolt\u00e8s Character"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Antonia Tsamouris<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Solitude of Cotton Fields <\/em>by Bernard-Marie Kolt\u00e8s, translated by Judith Miller. Directed by Timofey Kulyabin.\u00a0Dramaturgy by Roman Dolhnskiy. Stage & Costume Design Oleg Golovko. Video design by Alexander Lobanov. Sound design by Timofei Pastukhov. Lighting by Oskars Paulins. Co-produced by Dailes Theatre, Riga, Latvia and Ekaterina Yakimova. Cast: Ingeborga Dapkunaite and John Malkovich. Staged at Onassis Stegi, Athens, Greece, Feb 9 to 12, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Solitude of Cotton Fields<\/em> was written by Bernard-Marie Kolt\u00e8s in 1987, only two years before the French playwright\u2019s untimely death. The play, which was first directed by Patrice Ch\u00e9reau, one of Kolt\u00e8s\u2019s closest collaborators and friends, encapsulates the playwright\u2019s theatre aesthetic. With its long monologues and lyric language, it underlines the loneliness that the two characters are confronted with. Reminiscent rather of two parallel monologues than of a dialogue, the two characters, the Dealer and the Client, try to speak with each other, but they are not being sincere and end up lying about what they really think and desire. In the end, they are more confined within themselves and less able to communicate. Kolt\u00e8s’s play evokes the everyday cruelty that arises in modern societies, resulting in a loneliness which cannot change despite the money or the power that someone may have. He succeeds in demonstrating the everyday problems of modern city life, although distancing himself from realistic writing.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkunaite alternating in the roles of the Dealer and the Client. Photo: M\u0101ris Mork\u0101ns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In some dark alley, somewhere in a big city, The Dealer and the Client are bargaining with each other for something that is never clearly defined. The playwright maintains this endless give-and-take, regardless of what is at stake, to be the foundation for all modern societies. In this never ending deal, the roles of the Client and the Dealer are often reversed. Kolt\u00e8s stresses that all human relationships are based on an unstoppable negotiation, which varies every time; it could be an economic one, or a political, personal, ethical, social or even sexual one. Often enough, the bargain is with one\u2019s own self, as is also implied in the text. Kolt\u00e8s\u2019s non-realistic way of writing, using many symbols, leaves his play open to the possibility that it is a monologue between one person’s conscious and subconscious. This inner dualism implied in the play emphasizes a personal disruption that modern people often experience due to their loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkunaite performing on stage and on camera, projecting their inner feelings and thoughts. Photo: M\u0101ris Mork\u0101ns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Timofey Kulyabin’s production of Kolt\u00e8s\u2019s play premiered at Riga, Latvia, in 2022 and later went on tour, including a visit to Athens’s Onassis Stegi. Kulyabin based his direction on the various dualities of the play. First, the ambiguous setting of the performance: it could be indoors or outdoors, real or illusory, familiar or foreign. When the performance opens, there is a bedroom and a bathroom, but later the action is transferred outside. In a dreamlike way, the street becomes the bedroom and the alley becomes an elevator, blurring the boundaries between outdoors and indoors. Oleg Golovko’s stage design managed to reflect the inner suffocation that Kolt\u00e8s\u2019s characters are experiencing, no matter where or with whom they are.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkunaite contribute with their playing to the blurring of the scenic space, which becomes both outdoors and indoors. Photo: M\u0101ris Mork\u0101ns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The second duality in Kulyabin\u2019s mise-en-sc\u00e8ne relates to the audience\u2019s vision, making use both of the dramatic space and the cinematic one, through video projections that merge the two in one. It was thus suggested that the two people on stage could have been one, split in two: one\u2019s ego and alter ego. That way the director attributed to the performance the psychological and social meanings that already existed in Kolt\u00e8s’s writing. As Maria M. Delgado argues, \u201cthere is much that is never openly stated in Kolt\u00e9s’s plays, an undercurrent remains unarticulated. All is expressed through metaphor and suggestion\u201d (31). This perception was much reinforced by their non-gender specific costumes, as well as their similarity in movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last, the video projections also served Kulyabin\u2019s epic theatre approach. While distancing the audience from their feelings, he at the same time placed them in the position of an active thinker in relation to what was happening on stage. So, the video projections helped the director to maintain the Brechtian alienation effect. Kulyabin further emphasized his Brechtian approach by alternating the two actors in their roles, making it almost impossible for the audience to sympathize or identify with either of them.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
John Malkovich as Kolt\u00e8s’s character trying to quiet his subconscious. Photo: M\u0101ris Mork\u0101ns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nonetheless, John Malkovich\u2019s evocative presence on stage was almost hypnotizing for the audience. Fully in control of his body as well as his voice, Malkovich performed exquisitely both for the stage and the screen. Alternating between the roles of the Dealer and of the Client, he also balanced between his character(s), namely the ego and the alter ego. His long experience with the camera helped him greatly, as the pre-recorded extracts showed. Ingeborga Dapkunaite, too, succeeded in working as Malkovich\u2019s scenic alter ego. In her sexless figure she became \u201cthe other\u201d to whatever her partner stood for. The lighting (Oskars Paulins) along with the video projections (Alexander Lobanov) created the impression of an inner darkness, a darkness that results from the way modern societies are structured, based on bargains that end up in losing one\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Kulyabin\u2019s mise-en-sc\u00e8ne kept the audience distanced from their feelings, as mere spectators of a transaction that occupies another human being\u2019s soul, made Kolt\u00e8s\u2019s lyrical and symbolic text even more tragic. People were watching other people struggling with their own inner existence. So, the audience was confronted with the consequences of their own actions, or rather their own inaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kulyabin, a young and promising Russian director both in theatre and in opera, has left Russia due to his criticism of the Ukraine war and is now living in Europe. The cruelty of this imperialistic war reflects the unending give-and-take which Kolt\u00e8s discusses in his play and Kulyabin exquisitely creates on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
Bibliography<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Delgado, Maria M. \u201cBernard Marie Kolt\u00e8s: A Personal Alphabet<\/a>.\u201d A Journal of Performance and Art<\/em>. May 2011. Vol. 33, no. 2: pp. 26-35. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*<\/a>Antonia Tsamouris<\/strong> holds a BA in Theatre Studies (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies (Royal Holloway University of London). She has a PhD on Harold Pinter\u2019s oeuvre and a post-Doctorate on Edward Albee\u2019s theatre, both from the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Member of the Greek section of IATC and Member in the Board of Directors at Ed. Albee Society she has contributed articles and reviews to many magazines and books in Greece and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2023 Antonia Tsamouris
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN:2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2023\/05\/image4-12.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}