A sketch comedy by Jean-Pierre Martinez
English translation by the author
Many different characters (males or females)
“On the highest throne in the world, we are still only sitting on our own arse,” said Montaigne. So on a public bench, just imagine…
In a public park, on the same bench, a succession of characters with unusual lives come and sit down. Sometimes their paths cross.
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 song from the play. Lyrics and music: Jean-Pierre Martinez. This song may be used as part of a stage production, upon 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.
The Public Bench, an Observation Post for the Human Comedy
Eleven scenes unfold around the same bench, in a public square where characters from every walk of life come and go. Some merely pass through, while others return or cross paths without realising it. The search for loot hidden beneath the sand, an investigation conducted by two police officers and the announcement of an unlikely performance create links between the episodes and give the collection a circular structure.
The bench provides a particularly effective theatrical device. Fixed in place and open to everyone, it successively welcomes mothers, unemployed people, pensioners, elected officials, lovers, homeless people and even a billionaire who has strayed far outside his usual world. Each new arrival transforms this ordinary space into a different stage, while echoes between the dialogues make individual lives appear as fragments of the same collective comedy.
The square is, in principle, a shared public space, yet social hierarchies do not disappear simply because people sit on the same bench. The satire exposes class divisions, political dead ends, insecurity and mechanisms of exclusion. Yet the roles are constantly reversed: the chauffeur understands the world better than his employer, the representatives of law and order begin to question their vocation, and local officials reproduce the very failings they claim to oppose. The comedy arises from these contradictions, made visible through direct dialogue and familiar situations.
The presence of the author among the characters, together with the final game surrounding a play still waiting to be written, gives the collection a reflective dimension. The square itself becomes an image of theatre: an open space where strangers meet, briefly play their part, then make way for others. Beneath the lightness of the exchanges, Brèves de square thus offers a sensitive and ironic portrait of a society whose members may share the same bench without always inhabiting the same world.