In the Solitude of Cotton Fields at Onassis Stegi

“If you are out walking at this hour and in this place, you must want something, and that something I’m sure I may help you with.”

Composed in the style of an 18th-century philosophical dialogue, In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, by playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès comes to the stage of Onassis Stegi. The Dealer and the Client, two anonymous strangers and the only two characters of the play, meet late at night and engage in a charged conversation. But their conversation, instead of clarifying, seems to further cloud the purpose of the bargaining the more it progresses. 

A multifaceted, complex play, it leaves it up to the audience to decipher the nature of the mysterious deal; a deal unclear as to its details, but with high stakes clearly at play. 

In this adaptation, director Timofey Kulyabin has altered the regular dynamic that comes from both roles being taken on by male actors and has John Malkovich and award-winning Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite alternate in the roles of Client and Dealer. 

It's hard not to be intrigued by the play’s premise, and the excellent cast makes it even harder to give it a miss.