'Solitude' slow, but tugs at emotions
THEATER REVIEW
"In the Solitude of Cotton Fields"
Grade: C
8 p.m. today-Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday. $25. 7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Ave., Little Five Points. 404-523-7647, 7stages.org.
Bottom line: A lot of work.
In Albert Camus' existentialist novel "The Stranger," a Frenchman kills an Arab man he sees on the beach for no apparent reason. In Bernard-Marie Koltes' "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields," a momentary glance between a white "client" and a black "dealer" prompts a study of the tipping point between fear and desire, attraction and repulsion.
Koltes, a French playwright who died of AIDS in 1989, had an abiding fascination with the complex relationships between blacks and whites. After producing Koltes' "Black Battles With Dogs" in 2001, Atlanta's 7 Stages now embarks on a 10-year investigation of the dramatist's mysterious body of work, which uses poetry and symbolism to express his political and moral concerns.
Directed by Eric Vigner, Isma'il ibn Conner's elegant new translation of "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" applies a precisely choreographed vocabulary of language and movement to portray the dangerous pas de deux of the dealer (Conner) and client (Del Hamilton).
Beginning as a series of alternating monologues, "Solitude" strains to turn a passing glance into an erotically charged, 90-minute meditation on the dynamics of power, trust, control and submission. Though the psychological face-off can be a slow-going, tedious experience, it also offers moments of genuine heartbreak.
What happens when a game of seduction turns into an orgy of anguished words and regret? In this case, it's as if the client expects a kick and doesn't know what to do when he gets a caress. His rage over the hustler's compassionate impulse can easily be interpreted as a case of self-loathing and homophobia.
While you admire these artists' affinity for the material, "Solitude" treats a minor playwright with an air of self-importance that will stretch the patience of many theater-goers. At the end of the day, the piece might play better in the solitude of graduate seminars than the public domain.
