Night Just Before the Forest

Following the success of The Exiled Trilogy, their summer 2011 collaboration, Theatre Y Company Members Elisabeth Barnick, Melissa Lorraine, and Kevin V. Smith bring their talents to bear on the enigmatic monologue, “Night Just Before the Forest” by Bernard-Marie Koltès, presenting its Chicago premiere at the Viaduct Theater.

“Whoever says You does not have something; he has nothing. But he stands in relation.” – Martin Buber, I and Thou

Night Just Before the Forest is a one-man show poetically chronicling the exploits of an unnamed narrator as he grapples with urban alienation and searches for a You among the assholes and the whores and the blonde bitches and the punks and the sandnigger hunters. As one of Koltès’ earliest full-length pieces, it burns from the full fire of the theme that was to dominate much of his later work, the ‘deal’ that binds those engaging in human contact within the roles of supplier and consumer. This narrator follows no direct path toward You, what we witness is a circuitous path that winds its way through the narrator’s memory as he tries to find a space for two people with no roles, only I and You, in direct relation.