Bernard-Marie Koltes Plays : 2 ― Night Just Before the Forests/Sallinger/Quay West/In the Solitude of Cotton Fields

Sallinger is set in America and provides extraordinarily prescient insight into the country's relationship with outsiders; Night Just Before the Forests is a soul-searching monologue addressed to an unseen audience whose identity is never fully discovered, although it is constantly in question; Quay West follows along the lines of Sallinger and examines the perspective of America from the inside out; and In the Solitude of Cotton Fields is an extraordinary duologue between two men who meet randomly on the street and who find themselves locked in a struggle between life and death.

"A creator of a mythology of the underworld, a champion of the underdog and the lone wolf, and a pioneer of a wholly new style of dramatic writing."—The Times

"A classic of our time, who, since 1990, is the French author most performed abroad."
—Le Monde

Influenced by Genet and Fugard, Koltes’ plays combined an underworld mythology with a vision of the harsh realities of life at the end of the 20th century in order to pioneer a new and dynamic style of dramatic writing.

Bernard-Marie Koltes was born in 1948. Living variously in New York and Paris, he became one of the most challenging and innovative playwrights of his generation. He died in 1989.