The Night Just Before the Forests
by Bernard-Marie Koltès – Theater Basel (2017)
Robin Ormond’s first encounter with Koltès’s text.
In a nearly documentary setting, the man from The Night Just Before the Forests appears as a transient figure — caught between belonging and exclusion.
The monologue becomes a physical space, a breath that struggles to exist.
Text: Bernard-Marie Koltès
Direction: Robin Ormond
Performer: Michael Wächter
Production: Theater Basel
©️ Photo credit : Kim Culetto
Press excerpt
Südkurier – Siegbert Kopp (September 26th 2017)
“This is anything but a classical evening at the theatre.
With The Night Just Before the Forests, Robin Ormond and Michael Wächter lead the audience through bars, alleys and across the Rhine.
Wächter embodies a man on the edge – raw, angry, and vulnerable – desperately searching for a room and someone to talk to.
He remains completely convincing: an outcast drawing us deep into the night.”
Basler Zeitung – Clara Vuille-dit-Bille (2017)
“In Robin Ormond’s staging, the city becomes the backdrop of the monologue.
The audience follows a body in motion, a voice ceaselessly seeking contact.
Michael Wächter moves between rage and fragility, irony and panic – Koltès’s text regains its original power: a voice struggling to survive in public space.”