A sketch comedy by Jean-Pierre Martinez
English translation by the author
Many different characters (males or females)
A theatre can also be the setting for funny stories where the theme… is the theatre itself. 28 very short scenes, each no longer than a page.
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The Stage as a Laboratory of Language and Appearances
Thirty very short scenes bring two characters together in the almost bare space of the theatre. They cross paths, wait, observe the audience or comment on what surrounds them. An apparently trivial situation, a familiar expression or a simple misunderstanding is enough to conjure up an entire world. The format is highly flexible: the roles can be assigned freely, and several characters may be played by the same performers.
Each sketch is built around a mechanism of great precision. An expression is taken literally, a word shifts meaning, or a theatrical convention suddenly becomes reality. The action quickly moves from everyday logic into absurdity, before a final line snaps the scene shut like a punchline. This extreme brevity gives the dialogue the density of a comic aphorism.
Theatre naturally becomes the subject of its own game. A spotlight turns into the moon, the audience into a crowd or a shoal of fish, while a fake firefighter may announce a real fire. Actors, prompters, drama teachers, private theatres, subsidised theatres and amateur companies are all observed with affectionate irony. The boundary between stage and auditorium thus remains constantly open.
Beneath their apparent lightness, these miniatures explore the power of words. Words name colours, create feelings, define identities and give reality to things that do not yet exist. By reducing theatre to its essential elements — two presences, a few words and the gaze of an audience — Brèves de scène reminds us that acting is, above all, the art of bringing a shared world into existence, almost out of nothing.
