A comedy by Jean-Pierre Martinez
English translation by Anne-Christine Gasc
A CEO invites a minister to dinner with the aim of getting him to sign a large contract, and hires an escort to help seal the deal. But the escort in question is filling in for a friend who led her to believe it was just a well-paid catering job. She expects to be handing out appetizers, only to find out she’s on the menu. Naturally, nothing will go according to plan…
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The song from the play. Lyrics and music Jean-Pierre Martinez. This song may be used as part of a stage production, simple request to the author and without any additional fees. The audio file is available upon request, subject to prior authorization from the author for the use of the play’s text.
A Political Boulevard Comedy About the Backroom Deals of Power
Dessous de table is built around a particularly effective misunderstanding: to persuade a minister to sign a major contract, a CEO hires an escort girl whose job is to seduce him. But the young woman who turns up is merely a student standing in for a friend and convinced that she has simply been hired as a hostess. She thinks she is there to serve dinner, while everyone else expects her to be part of the menu.
The play offers three very different comic roles. The CEO desperately tries to save his deal, the minister combines political ambition with personal appetites, while the student gradually realises the trap she has fallen into and eventually takes back control. Improvised lies, misunderstandings, blackmail, seduction and reversals fuel a fast-paced boulevard mechanism in which each character tries to manipulate the other two.
For the audience, Dessous de table combines the pleasures of vaudeville with a satire of politics and business. Corruption, conflicts of interest, ambition and hypocrisy are treated as farce without ever slowing the action. With three characters, a single set and a plot that constantly twists and turns, the play offers actors rewarding roles and audiences a lively, biting and immediately accessible comedy.