Charles Berling / Mata Gabin

A dealer. A customer. These are the two characters of Bernard-Marie Koltès' play, one of the most hypnotic duets in contemporary theatrical literature. Between them a transaction takes place whose content is unknown. It is latent, in tension, saturated with desire, violence, visceral fears, chiseled words. In the darkness, Koltès speaks of our disqualifications, our power relations, our illegalities and our irrepressible, sensual, devouring desires. 

Charles Berling's staging shares Koltès' writing, brings the monologues into dialogue, places the characters and their solitudes in an immense setting, so entrenched to the audience that none of them emerge unscathed. The dealer is a drug dealer, played by Mata Gabin; Charles Berling is the customer. Their physical and verbal jousting is imprinted in our memories, and it is indelible.