In the Solitude of Cotton Fields is a new play by famous Russian theatre and opera director Timofey Kulyabin. It is based on the work of the outstanding French playwright of the second half of the 20th century, Bernard-Marie Koltes. World famous actors are invited to participate in the performance – Russian-Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite and American actor John Malkovich.

This play features the following situation: two people meet in a dark alley. One calls himself the Dealer, the other is named the Client. Dealer is trying to sell something to Client, something the latter must name himself. Client doesn't want to name the item and refuses the deal in every possible way.

The piece is their argument, the confrontation of two people expressed in a play on words and meanings. Over time, audience realizes that the subject of the sale is a secret sexual attraction. Two characters must confess their attraction to each other. However, since neither one of them wants to call things for what they are, they go round and about and audience understands that this dispute will not be resolved because no one wants to confess.

Director Timofey Kulyabin and dramaturg Roman Dolzhansky have created stage adaptation of the play for the new performance, in which sound design and video score are meant to play an important role. New age cameras follow actors and create not only the "close up" effect but parallel media action, some sort of live videoart.

"There are two actors in our performance but only one character. We will spend most of the time in the subconscious, in the nightmares of a person who will never appear on stage. Instead, we will see two confronting figures conducting a tense, emotional and complicated dialogue. It is a dialogue of a person with his own secret desires and fears. With something he can't even admit to himself – and at the same time, something he can't get rid of without committing suicide," – Timofey Kuliabin on the plot of his play In the Solitude of Cotton Fields.

The play In the Solitude of Cotton Fields – is a collaboration of Territory Foundation for contemporary art development, The Dailes Theatre, Blavatnik Family Foundation and MART Foundation.

Timofey Kulyabin
Theatre director who prolifically works both in drama and in opera. One of the best
known Russian directors of the younger generation in Europe. He made his debut as the
professional stage director at the age of 22 in 2006, and has since staged about 30
productions in Russian and European theatres, including the Bolshoi Theatre, Theatre of
Nations (Moscow), Deutsches Theater (Berlin), Schauspielhaus (Zurich),
Residenztheater (Munich). Since 2015, he is the artistic director of the Red Torch
Theatre (Novosibirsk). He is known for his radically modern interpretations of classical
authors - Chekhov, Ibsen, Pushkin, Gogol, Strindberg, etc. His productions are regular
guests of international theatre festivals, and his show Three Sisters based on Anton
Chekhov's play was awarded the Golden Mask National Theatre Award and has toured
dozens of countries.

Ingeborga Dapkunaite
Theatre and cinema actress, TV presenter. She started her acting career in Lithuanian
theatres, particularly in the productions of the legendary director Eimuntas
Nyakroshyus. Since the 1990s, she has been successfully working in Russian theatres
and on Russian television and has become one of the most recognizable and popular
actresses in Russia. Currently her theatre work in Russia is mainly connected with the
Theatre of Nations (Moscow), where she successfully performs central parts, both in
classical works and in plays by contemporary playwrights. She also takes part in
international theatre and film projects and constantly works with British and American
studios; she played in Mission: Impossible (1996), Seven Years in Tibet (1997) films
and in numerous BBC series.

John Malkovich
Actor, director, producer and scriptwriter. His cinema work displaying his wide range of
acting, outstanding charm and technique, has brought him international fame, dozens of
awards and several Oscar nominations. He has played over 70 parts in movies including
those by Steven Spielberg (Empire of the Sun, 1987), Bernardo Bertolucci (The
Scheltering Sky, 1990), Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, 1988), the Coen brothers
(Burn After Reading, 2008), Luc Besson (Joan of Arc, 1990) and others. Malkovich,
apart from film acting, also works as a director, writer and producer, and appears in TV
productions. At the same time, since the mid-1970s, Malkovich has continually worked
theatre stages of Broadway, London, Paris and other theatrical metropolises as an actor
and director. His partners are the stars of world theatre. For his directing work in
theatre, he received the French National Theatre Molière Award and the British Milton
Schulman Award.

Oleg Golovko
Artist and designer. Graduated from I.E. Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute
of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (class of Eduard Kochergin). Trained in Paris at
the Beaux-Arts Institute. From 2000 to 2003, he was the chief artist of the Altai
Regional Drama Theatre named after V. M. Shukshin (Barnaul). In 2004–2006, he was
the chief artist of the Red Torch Theatre, for which he designed more than 20
performances. He has created stage design for more than 100 performances, including
shows for the Bolshoi Theatre and Theatre of Nations (Moscow), Mariinsky Theatre,
Bolshoi Drama Theatre, the Bryantsev Youth Theatre, the Baltic House (St. Petersburg),
Yaroslavl Volkov Theatre, Omsk Academic Drama Theatre, Residenztheater (Munich),
Opernhaus (Wuppertal, Germany), Deutsches Theater (Berlin, Germany), etc. For more
than ten years, he has been working with director Timofey Kulyabin, being the set
designer for all his performances up to this day.