(click for more images)

The Fetishist

A tender and eccentric lover of women's underwear recounts the comic misadventures of his obsession.

Night Just Before the Forest

On a rainy night in a deserted Paris street, a man struggles with the isolation and inner torment that threatens to consume him.

Frédérique Michel's stylized staging adroitly complements the absurdist leanings of these two French one-acts. Michel Tournier's The Fetishist, the slighter of the pair, is also the more successful. Bo Roberts delivers a knockout performance as a somewhat dim yet blissful, institutionalized panty-sniffer on a semi-supervised day trip from a hospital. Perched on a park bench clutching Victoria's Secret lingerie bags, Roberts giddily sings nonsense syllables before launching into an explanation of his obsession with "naughty frillies." Tournier's tale is both humorous and sad, and Roberts offers a compelling performance as a pervert revolted by nakedness.

Michel's direction works even better in Bernard-Marie Koltès' Night Just Before the Forest. Unfortunately, Koltès' script is rather repetitive. The role of a homeless, leather-jacketed street hustler is shared by two actors, Shan Serafin and Craig Parish, whose synchronized movements are sharply executed. Among the social ills tackled by the purposefully fragmented narrative about alienation are, most prominently, gay bashing and xenophobia. But Koltès' enigmatic script could use more clarity, being ultimately as vague as the main character's idea of starting an "international union" based on shared hatred of the elite. Erin Vincent has a brief role as a streetwalker who wants to "hunt sand niggers."
-- Sandra Ross, L.A. Weekly.