Written by Bernard-Marie Koltes
Translated from the French by Andy Bragen
Cast of fourteen (nine male, five female)
Translation commissioned by inparentheses theatre, with the support of Etant Donnes, the French-American Fund for the Performing Arts. Reading, June 2002. Reading May 2003, directed by Richard Kimmel, as part of the 2003 Koltes Festival.
Back to The Desert, set in provincial France in the early 60’s, towards the end of the Algerian war of independence, explores the ways colonization insinuates itself into the lives of the colonizers.
Like Tabataba, I translated Back to the Desert for the 2003 Koltes Festival at the Ohio Theatre in New York, organized by Marion Schoevaert and Doris Mirescu. Koltes passed away in 1989, at the age of 41. His plays are unlike anyone else’s. His language is incantatory, his world view that of an outsider. His plays have been widely produced in Europe, but, sadly, are rarely produced here in the states.