Winter affords L.A. audiences a rare chance to see the work of a Norwegian playwright. No, not Henrik Ibsen -- Jon Fosse, who at fifty is considered Norway's leading contemporary dramatist. As translated by Ann Henning, Jocelyn and Lene Pedersen (who also co-stars in the one-act play), Fosse writes in the Harold Pinter tradition of cryptic, understated dialogue broken up by pauses and silence, with much of the drama depending on mystery and menace.
Pedersen plays an unnamed prostitute who accosts an equally nameless man in a bleak city park with snow pelting down in the background. (The masterful set is by Justin Corrigan, with eerie lighting by Andy Figueroa). The Woman is so drunk or stoned that her ankles bend under her when she tries to walk. She's also deeply distraught, one minute coming on to him shamelessly ("I am your woman...You think I'm sexy, don't you?"), the next spitting vile profanities at him.
The Man (Terje Skonseng Naudeer) doesn't quite know how to cope with this onslaught of emotion. At first he tries to fend her off and get away from her; then he finds himself being drawn to her, tempted by her bold, outfront sexuality. The first scene is an exciting one; there is lust, madness and danger in it. The next three scenes, though, see a diminishment of those dramatic qualities (though the acting is strong throughout).
The Woman goes to his hotel room where she not only sleeps with him but becomes more rational, controlled and "normal." He on the other hand becomes increasingly obsessed with her, to such an extent that he begins to lose his grip on life: he walks out on his job, gets dumped by his wife. These things happen slowly, subtly, without the fireworks of the opening scene. The result is a diminishment of tension and urgency, a tendency toward banality. Still, the character switch, with The Man and Woman reversing their relationship, is a clever one: he's left befuddled and bereft, she feels triumphant and strong (yet a tad guilty). Fosse's investigation of sexual compulsion is uncompromising and bleak; his play is aptly titled as it deals with the winter in the soul as well as in the weather.
