Fight of the negro and the dogs
Battle of the Negro and the Dogs ( French = Combat de nègre et de chiens ) is a play by Bernard-Marie Koltès .
content
A black worker is killed by a white engineer on a building site for a French company in a West African country. The murdered man's brother, Alboury, comes to the construction site to request the surrender of the body. Horn, the site manager, tries to portray the murder as an accident and covers his engineer Cal. He met the young Frenchwoman Léone in Paris and invited her to visit him on the construction site. He would like to avoid any trouble, say goodbye to Africa with his young lover amid fireworks and return to Europe. He does not succeed in persuading Alboury, who is fighting like a modern Antigone to be able to bury his brother's body, with money and alcohol, from his demands. Cal tries to make Léone sexually compliant. But Léone defends himself. She is disgusted with Cal and has no erotic interest in horn either. She is looking for something strange and thinks she will discover it in Alboury. She falls in love with the black man. Brutal eroticism, lustful violence, aggression, lies and betrayal become visible.
Productions
- La Mama Theater , New York 1981. World premiere (Director: Françoise Kourilsky)
- Théâtre des Amandiers , Nanterre 1983. French premiere (Director: Patrice Chéreau )
- Schauspielhaus Zürich , Zürich 1984. German premiere (director: Henri Hohenemser )
- Münchner Kammerspiele , Munich 1992 (Director: Armin Petras )
- Volksbühne Berlin , Berlin 2003 (Director: Dimiter Gotscheff )
- Münchner Volkstheater , Munich 2005 (Director: Sebastian Hirn )
- Théâtre des Amandiers , Nanterre 2010 (Director: Michael Thalheimer )
- Saarländisches Staatstheater , Saarbrücken 2012 (Director: Leyla-Claire Rabih )
- Burgtheater , Vienna 2018 (Director: Miloš Lolić)
Text output
- Fight of the negro and the dogs. The night just before the woods Two pieces. Translated by Simon Werle. Publication of the authors.