No Sense Off Limits by Jean-Pierre Martinez
No Sense Off Limits, a sketch comedy by Jean-Pierre Martinez. Two characters per sketch.
Original title : Sans interdit sans interdit.
Translation by the autor
1. Here and the Hereafter
2. The Waiting Room
3. That Doesn’t Mean Anything
4. The Bill
5. Looking Is Free
6. Where’s the Fire?
7. The Meter
8. Auto-Deprecation
9. In Unison
10. The Newspaper
11. The Visit
12. Time Off
13. Out to Pasture
14. Playwrights These Days
15. George
16. J.C.
17. The Suitcase
18. Low Cost
19. The Road
20. To Tell the Truth
21. The Wrong Sense of Humour
Cast : Two characters per sketch. Flexible casting.
Download the playscript for free
Any performance requires prior authorization and the payment of performance rights.
Play published online in March 2009.
The play premiered in Saint-Dionisy on 30 June 2011.
Spanish translation by the author : Sin Sentido Prohibido
Portuguese translation by the author : Sem Sentido Proibido
Czech translation by Jaromír Janeček : Zákaz vjezdu… Račte
From Double Meaning to Nonsense: When Language Gets Tangled
Communication depends on words having a shared meaning. Yet each sketch disrupts this convention: expressions are taken literally, meanings shift, and explanations create more confusion than they resolve. Spatial disorientation then becomes existential disorientation. When language can no longer help us locate things, the characters begin to question their own identity, the reality around them, and even the possibility of understanding one another.
This loss of meaning also reflects a world saturated with information, instructions and discourse that claim to guide us. The more signs institutions produce, the further they distance individuals from concrete experience. Theatre, however, transforms this crisis into freedom to play: a single word is enough to change place, role or reality. Nonsense, then, is not an absence of meaning, but a proliferation of possible meanings, with laughter as their only common ground.
The song of the play "No Sense Off Limits"
English version
French version
Spanish version
Lyrics and music: Jean-Pierre Martinez
These songs may be used, without obligation, 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.
Shows
To search for individual sketches, you can visit the dedicated website: https://sketchotheque.net/
More than 400 sketches by Jean-Pierre Martinez, available to read and perform.
Full texts available as free downloads.
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