[3] The setting, a derelict warehouse in an abandoned section of a port city, is a kind of character as well,[4] both space and non-space, empty but real.
[5] Plot, wrote one critic, "was never Koltès's strength", yet he essayed a brief summation: "a suicidal financial wizard and his girlfriend, a homeless Latin American family and two creepy opportunists engage in a hellish but often funny battle in which everyone is both predator and prey", concluding with "a couple of spectacular murders that seem so natural they are cathartic".
[6] Another offers this precis: "The action tells the story of Maurice Koch, a businessman who jumps into a river after parting from his secretary Monique Pons.
The Nanterre cast included María Casarès, Jean-Marc Thibault, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Catherine Hiégel, and Isaach de Bankolé.
[10] A positive review in The New York Times said that "The cast gives these characters the entrancing energy of subtle maniacs" in the course of "a mordant, violently physical exploration of lost people searching for connections", saved by Koltes' "aptitude for dramatic confrontation".
The work received its first performance on 27 September 2014 at the Opéra national du Rhin directed by Kristian Frédric during the festival Musica à Strasbourg.