Bernard-Marie Koltès

Within the year, Koltès directed and acted in productions at the Théâtre du Quai in Strasbourg,a company he founded. He directed some of his own work there, including La Marche (The Walk), an adaptation of the biblical Song of Solomon, and Procès ivre (Drunken Trial), based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Some of Koltès's early works such as L'Héritage (The Inheritance) and the unpublished Des Voix sourdes (Deaf Voices) were even broadcast on national French radio in 1972 and 1973. His first widely celebrated piece, the long monologue, The Night Just Before The Forests, was staged in 1977 at the Avignon Festival, and subsequent productions were put on in collaboration with director Patrice Chéreau.

Koltès's work, based in real-life problems, expresses the tragedy of being alone and of death. His writing style accents the dramatic tension and the lyricism of his plays. Koltes also translated into French Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

It is evident that Genet and the absurdists influenced Koltès's writing. Like other absurdist writers, he felt exiled – in his case, as a homosexual in a heterosexual world. In Africa, he saw native cultures being wiped out by European influences. This theme brought forth Black Battles with Dogs. After a visit to America he wrote Quay ouest (1985), about a brother and sister in a foreign culture. The psychopathic killer Roberto Succo provided the inspiration for his final play Roberto Zucco. It was first performed posthumously in Berlin in 1990, directed by Peter Stein. It has since been performed across Europe and the United States.[1]

Koltès died in a Paris hospital in 1989 due to complications from AIDS.