A sketch comedy by Jean-Pierre Martinez
English translation by the author
Many different characters (males or females)
In the lobby of a building, between the mailboxes and the entry code panel,
strange characters cross paths without always understanding each other…
This text is available to read for free. However, an authorisation is required from the author prior to any public performance, whether by professional or amateur companies. To get in touch with Jean-Pierre Martinez and ask an authorisation to represent one of his works CONTACT FORM
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The Entrance Hall, a Crossroads of Solitude
In the entrance hall of an apartment building, residents, visitors, postal workers and strangers cross paths around the letterboxes, the entry code and the bins. Across twelve self-contained yet subtly connected scenes, ordinary incidents — a forgotten code, a mislaid letter, a suspicious parcel or a neighbour mistaken for someone else — give rise to increasingly unusual situations. The entrance hall becomes an in-between space where everyone passes through without ever really knowing the people who live only a few metres away.
The play is built on a precise mechanism of entrances, exits and chance encounters. Objects provide links between the sketches, while certain characters or events reappear in the background, giving the building an unseen life of its own. The highly flexible casting allows several performers to play different residents in succession: this game of transformation strengthens the impression of a small society in which the individuals change, while the same fears, desires and misunderstandings keep recurring.
Paradoxically, a place designed to facilitate the movement of people and messages becomes one where nothing ever quite reaches its destination. One letter is delivered thirty years too late, another is addressed to a dead man, a piece of mail ends up in the wrong box and an innocent parcel becomes a threat. Communication itself breaks down: caution turns into suspicion, curiosity into intrusion and politeness into conflict. The comedy grows out of this everyday logic pushed to the point of absurdity, often tinged with black humour.
Through this apartment building, the play offers a satirical portrait of urban loneliness. The characters live close to one another, yet only encounter each other through fragments, prejudices or mistaken interpretations. The final sketch broadens this reflection: the letter becomes the fragile trace left behind by those who merely pass through. Beneath the succession of comic situations emerges a more melancholy question about what remains of our lives once the messages, the memories and even their recipients have disappeared.