A selection of theatrical burlesque comedies by French playwright Jean-Pierre Martinez, available in English. These fast-paced plays use exaggeration, absurd situations, misunderstandings and larger-than-life characters to push comic situations beyond the limits of everyday reality.
In the theatrical tradition, burlesque comedy transforms familiar situations through parody, physical humour, excess and deliberate absurdity. Ordinary conflicts can escalate into increasingly improbable situations where logic gives way to comic invention.
Browse the plays below to discover their synopses, cast information, scripts available for reading and information about performance rights.
Desperate to regain some of her family’s lost prestige, Baroness Swindlemore von Hustlestein is in search of a rich and easily pleased suitor for her daughter, who isn’t much to look at. She thinks she has found the perfect candidate…
Mr. and Mrs. Camembert have just bought the dilapidated castle of Moulinrouge, and they have invited the local high society for a dinner concert. They hope this will gain them admission as members of the town's highly exclusive Philanthropic Club. But soon, the pianist's head appears floating in the pool. And to think we're barely at the appetisers..
Following a hearse accident, the arrival in a typical French café of a coffin, which turns out to contain a winning lottery ticket, provides the pretext for a highly spirited comedy.