For several decades now, heatwaves have been occurring one after another, ever earlier, longer and more severe. Heat “records” are broken year after year. Humanity seems to be rushing towards its own destruction, unable to change course in order to avoid this looming apocalypse. This implacable mechanism is the very mechanism of tragedy: we already know that it will end badly, but we can do nothing to prevent it…
Jean-Pierre Martinez, both a playwright and a lyricist, has nevertheless chosen to sound the alarm, through sketches and songs. With seriousness, but not without humour, he warns us of the fragility of the human species, and of the absurdity of its fate should it disappear while possessing both the knowledge of the mortal danger that threatens it and the means to avert it. Unless the disappearance of Humanity is written into its DNA, and nothing can alter its programmed end…
Variable cast: for one or more duos (up to 8), any gender.
Play published online in June 2026
The songs may be performed live by the actors in the play or by singers, accompanied by musicians on stage, or sung over a recorded instrumental backing track, supplied by the author on request. The songs may also be played as part of a soundtrack integrated into the performance.
1 – The Fall of Icarus
Song Le Bocal
2 – Climate sceptic
Song Canicule
3 – Catastrophe Theory
Song Après nous le déluge
4 – The Stone Age
Song Quatre étoiles
5 – Revolt and Revolution
Song Un bref instant d’éternité
6 – Apocalypse
Song Attention fragile
7 – Soap bubbles
Song Crash zone
8 – Hell
Song Bulles de savon
Full text of the musical comedy
1 – The Fall of Icarus
One character is blowing soap bubbles. Another arrives and watches. They are children, or adults dressed as children. Gender is irrelevant.
Two – That’s funny.
One – It looks as if they’re going to rise all the way up to the sky.
Two – Unless they burst first.
One – What could be drawing them up there?
A pause.
Two – Do you know Icarus?
One – Icarus? No… Is he a friend of yours?
Two – It’s a myth the Greeks left us. Icarus is the son of Daedalus. To escape from the labyrinth where they have been imprisoned, they make wings out of wax and feathers. Intoxicated by the feeling of being able to fly like a bird, Icarus flies too close to the sun. The wax begins to melt, and he falls into the sea.
One – What a story…
Two – Obviously, it has a symbolic meaning.
One – Oh, really…?
Two – It’s the notion of hubris. When Man tries to escape his condition and become a god, the gods grow angry with him and punish him for his pride.
One – I’d like to fly too. Like a soap bubble.
Two – Yes… but a soap bubble only lasts a few seconds.
One – Because the gods make it burst to stop it rising all the way up to the sky?
Two – Perhaps…
One – Then I’d like to be a butterfly.
Two – A butterfly only lives for a single day.
One – What about a bird?
Two – A raven can live for more than a hundred years.
One – I wouldn’t really like to be a raven.
Two – Neither would I.
A pause.
One – It’s hot.
Two – Yes.
One – It’s summer.
Two – In summer, it’s hot.
One – And in winter, it’s cold.
Two – I prefer summer. I like it when it’s hot.
One – So do I.
Two – In summer, you can be outside all day.
One – It stays light longer.
Two – And then summer means holidays.
One – I’d like it to be summer all year round, wouldn’t you?
Two – Yes.
2. Climate sceptic
Lights up.
One character is there, the same as before or not, male or female. Another arrives.
Two – It’s so hot today…
One – Oh no! Don’t you start as well.
Two – What?
One – It’s summer, it’s hot. That’s normal. No need to make a big deal out of it.
Two – Yes, but still…
One – They go on about it morning, noon and night on the news. It’s hot. It’s a heatwave. Red alert. Remember to stay hydrated. Don’t leave your mother-in-law sitting in a car in full sun…
Two – Well yes, but… It really is hot, though.
One – It’s hot, it’s hot… No hotter than usual. I’m telling you, they take us for fools.
Two – Apparently today we broke more records again.
One – Records… What nonsense… It’s not the Olympic Games, is it?
Two – True, heat records are about the only records we still manage to break in this bloody country.
One – I’m telling you, it’s all rubbish. It’s because of the greens!
Two – It’s because of the greens that it’s hot?
One – In any case, it’s because of the greens that we have to hear about the heatwave all day long!
Two – It’s true, they’re a pain in the neck, those greens, but still…
One – If it’s hot, it gives them grist to their mill, you see?
Two – To their mill?
One – To their wind turbines, if you prefer.
Two – Do wind turbines run on water?
One – Yes, well, I know what I mean…
Two – You’re the only one who does…
One – I’m not going to draw you a picture. It’s hot, vote for me! You’ll be less hot.
Two – And so?
One – Do you really think that if we elected a Green president, it would be less hot in summer?
Two – I don’t know… Maybe. We’ve never tried the greens.
One – It’s hot, all right… You buy air conditioning, and that’s that.
Two – Air conditioning… It’s not cheap, you know. And it’s not very green, is it?
One – Air conditioning isn’t very green? I’d better leave, then. I might get angry.
Link to the lyrics of the song Canicule
3 – Catastrophe Theory
Lights up.
One character is there, male or female. Another arrives.
Two – It’s hot, isn’t it?
One – Yes… Every year, it’s a little hotter than the year before.
Two – And for a little longer.
One – At first, it was just a few days.
Two – A week at most.
One – We called it an episode.
Two – Yes. A heatwave episode.
One – Now it’s no longer an episode, we get the whole season.
Two – And the seasons keep coming, with more and more episodes.
One – Like on Netflix.
Two – Now it’s more than six months a year.
One – Soon we’ll be talking about a cool spell from time to time.
Two – Like an ad break before the series continues.
One – How could we let this happen without reacting…?
Two – Because we’ve always put the short term before the long term.
One – Yes. The unemployment rate or the price of petrol before the survival of Humanity.
Two – Half a degree more every year doesn’t sound like much.
One – But after ten years, that’s five degrees.
Two – And after half a century, that’s twenty-five degrees.
One – And twenty-five degrees is a lot.
Two – Far too much.
One – Can we still stop this infernal machine?
Two – Until now, all we’ve done is try to minimise the symptoms, without really tackling the causes of the disease.
One – And now it’s too late.
Two – In any case, that’s what we’re told.
One – The people telling us that are sitting comfortably at home, by the swimming pool.
Two – Or indoors, with the air conditioning.
One – Their air conditioning, which dumps its heat outside. Where we are condemned to live, if only to go to work or do the shopping.
Two – We do have to fill the fridge.
One – It’s crazy, when you think about it. All the crap they sell us, we keep nicely chilled in a refrigerator, while we are literally dying of heat in our rabbit hutches.
Two – At least when we’re dead, they put us in a cold room.
One – Until it’s time to incinerate us… Releasing even more carbon into the atmosphere.
Two – Yes, but what can we do about it?
One – Nothing.
Two – That’s what mathematicians call catastrophe theory.
One – Catastrophe theory?
Two – How the very gradual, continuous evolution of a single parameter can suddenly, at a precise moment, produce a brutal break in continuity and an irreversible tipping point.
One – For example?
Two – A branch we’re sitting on, slowly sawing through it, until it suddenly snaps, taking us down with it.
One – I see… That’s what we call the straw that breaks the camel’s back, isn’t it?
Two – Exactly. It’s like rising waters.
One – Or a boat that is sinking because there’s a small hole in the hull.
Two – The water rises by one centimetre every hour. You can barely see it, and at the time it doesn’t change anything.
One – But by the end of the week, the boat has sunk by more than a metre.
Two – We think it’s not worth stopping the cruise for that, or putting the boat into dry dock to plug the hole. But at some point, the boat will suddenly go straight to the bottom, and nothing will be able to keep it afloat any more.
One – We know that after a month the boat will have sunk, but the captain doesn’t dare put the crew out of work. And as long as the cruise is having fun…
Two – Catastrophe theory also applies to social phenomena. For centuries, the people accept tyranny without flinching, and then suddenly…
One – Enough is enough.
Two – And that’s revolution.
A pause.
Two – The French managed to guillotine their king in order to have their revolution, but we are incapable of rebelling to stop this.
One – Who could we guillotine?
Two – I don’t know… The King of Spain?
One – Do you think the King of Spain is responsible for global warming?
Two – No, but guillotining a king would make us feel a bit better, wouldn’t it?
One – Yes…
4 – The Stone Age
Lights up.
One character, male or female, is there. Another arrives.
One – We’re suffocating. What’s going on?
Two – The air conditioning has stopped working.
One – You couldn’t get it going again?
Two – It hasn’t broken down… but there’s no electricity any more.
One – We’ve no water either.
Two – No internet.
One – How long are we going to last like this?
Two – Without internet?
One – Without water! And without air conditioning…
Two – What temperature is it now?
One – We’re close to sixty degrees… It’s insane!
Two – It’s like the pay-as-you-go pension system. The old people thought global warming would be their grandchildren’s problem.
One – The old people are dead, and their grandchildren are retired.
Two – And now it’s the old people’s problem too.
One – We were told so often that nothing could be done without increasing the deficit and unemployment. Now we’ve reached full employment and reduced the deficit…
Two – But we’re all going to die…
One – This country used to be the most beautiful in the world. Now it’s a desert.
Two – The planet’s population has already fallen by half.
One – We thought the only people who would die would be those without air conditioning.
Two – So those who had air conditioning didn’t care.
One – And now those who have air conditioning have no electricity to run it.
Two – Except those with a generator…
One – Until they run out of petrol to power it.
Two – Apparently the few dozen multi-billionaires who own ninety per cent of the world’s wealth are building a spaceship to leave Earth.
One – To go where?
Two – I don’t know… To another planet, I suppose… To start doing exactly the same thing all over again.
One – But we’re condemned to die here.
Two – How could we let this happen…?
One – At first, forty degrees in summer in the north seemed unimaginable. Then it became the norm. We reached fifty. Forty degrees became the good old days. Today, we’re over sixty.
Two – Air conditioning used to be a luxury. It became a matter of survival.
One – And now the air conditioning doesn’t work any more.
Two – The time has come to pay for our blindness over the past fifty years.
One – Do you think we can still reverse the trend?
Two – We’re told we can’t. Unless we go back to the Stone Age…
One – Go back to the Stone Age. If this carries on, we won’t even have that option any more…
5 – Revolt and revolution
Lights up.
One character, male or female, is there. Another arrives.
One – What’s all that noise?
Two – A riot.
One – A riot?
Two – In the suburbs, people don’t have air conditioning. They’re dying of heat. Literally. So they’re heading to the capital. They’re occupying every place that has air conditioning. Offices, government departments, ministries… The police are trying to stop them getting in…
One – You can even hear gunshots…
Two – If anyone had told me that one day people would be fighting for a bit of cool air…
One – A bit of cool air… They’re fighting to survive, that’s all…
Two – And the government is doing nothing?
One – The president will address the nation this evening… from his air-conditioned office.
Two – What can he possibly tell us now? To close the shutters during the day? To remember to stay hydrated?
One – They knew. They did nothing all these years.
Two – And now they tell us nothing can be done any more. That it’s too late. That we have to adapt if we don’t want to disappear, like the dinosaurs.
One – We knew too. And we did nothing either.
Two – What could we have done?
One – We could have rebelled. In the past, we were capable of calling a general strike for wage rises. And yet we were never bloody capable of doing the same thing to avoid dying of heat, or being submerged by rising waters.
Two – Because it’s a global problem. People said to themselves: what’s the point of stopping pollution here, if the rest of the world keeps burning coal and oil? Just so they can flood us with cheap products.
One – True. We lacked solidarity. And now we’re all going to die. Together.
Two – We thought only human beings were mortal, not Humanity. And yet, on the scale of the universe, Humanity has existed only for a brief instant. How could we believe it would live for ever?
One – We make fun of the dinosaurs because they failed to adapt. But dinosaurs dominated the Earth for nearly 200 million years. Humanity as such has existed for only a few tens of thousands of years, and it is already on the brink of extinction.
Two – Besides, the dinosaurs succumbed to an external cause. A meteorite impact. They didn’t have much time to adapt. Human beings are going to die from the consequences of their own behaviour, because they are incapable of changing it.
One – Like a smoker or an alcoholic who dies of cancer because he didn’t have the willpower to stop drinking or smoking in time.
Two – It’s as if the end of Humanity were already written into its own genes. Man is a time bomb.
One – And the countdown has begun…
A pause.
Two – Do you know where the expression “dog days” comes from?
One – No, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me…
Two – In Latin, canicula means “little dog” — or, more precisely, “little bitch”. It was the Roman nickname for Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, located in the constellation Canis Major, the Great Dog. In Antiquity, people believed that when Sirius rose at the same time as the Sun, its heat added to the Sun’s and caused the hottest days of summer — the famous “dog days”.
One – So heatwaves are nothing new…
Two – No… And neither is global warming. By starting to make fire, prehistoric humans set off this deadly process, which accelerated with the Industrial Revolution.
One – What we need is a second Industrial Revolution, but in reverse. To stop this infernal machine…
Two – Do you think it could begin with this riot?
One – The question is whether it’s a revolution, or just a revolt…
6 – Apocalypse
Lights up.
One character, male or female, is there. Another arrives.
One – Did you hear the radio?
Two – The radio? Does that still exist?
One – Since the last television channel stopped broadcasting, they’ve reopened a radio station.
Two – And?
One – This time, I think it’s the end.
Two – The end of the world, you mean?
One – The end of Humanity, at any rate.
Two – It’s true that the Earth itself has seen worse. Ice ages, periods of overheating, meteorite impacts…
One – After a few centuries, the Earth will recover, that’s for sure. But us…
Two – We wanted to fly too high. Too fast. We burnt our wings. And now we’re in free fall. We’re all going to crash.
One – That reminds me of something…
Two – And what are they saying on the radio?
One – They’re telling us to pray.
Two – Pray?
One – The only radio station we can still listen to is one announcing that the apocalypse is coming tomorrow. And that we must prepare.
Two – Prepare? How?
One – By praying, precisely…
Two – If only all their prayers could have prevented this.
One – And yet, since Humanity has existed, there have been plenty of prayers.
Two – We would have been better off praying a little less and acting a little more.
One – After every natural disaster, earthquake, flood, forest fire… In the midst of mass graves, the survivors thanked God for having spared their own little selves.
Two – And even today, the few very temporary survivors of this apocalypse are still giving thanks to their God.
One – Do you think the very last survivor of Humanity, before disappearing, will still thank God for having spared him?
Two – What’s certain is that God will disappear with the last man stupid enough to believe in him.
One – That’s one of the few reasons to feel hopeful about the prospect of this apocalypse…
7 – Soap Bubbles
Lights up.
One character, male or female, is blowing soap bubbles. Another arrives.
Two – What are you doing…?
One – Blowing soap bubbles.
Two (taken aback) – I can see that… But I mean…
One – Have you never blown soap bubbles?
Two – Yes… Probably… When I was five or six, I suppose…
One – Yes… Me too… I’ve decided to take it up again…
Two – Right…
One – Do you know what Nietzsche said about soap bubbles?
Two – Nietzsche?
One – “For me, butterflies, soap bubbles and human beings who resemble them are the ones who know the most about happiness.”
Two – Nietzsche said that?
One – In Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Two – Right…
One – You see… Nietzsche blew soap bubbles too.
Two – OK…
One – Why did you stop?
Two – Stop? Stop what?
One – Blowing soap bubbles. You said you used to do it when you were five or six. Why did you stop?
Two – I don’t know… After a while, I moved on to other things, I suppose.
One – Other things… Like what, for instance?
Two – Later… I started smoking.
One – All right… But smoking…?
Two – Yes, joints too.
One – And after that…?
Two – After that… I stopped as well.
One – And now?
Two – Now I vape.
One – You should try taking up soap bubbles again.
Two – Yes, maybe… (A pause) Are you sure you’re all right?
One – Yes, why?
The other looks around.
Two – It’s been such a long time since I last came here.
One – Yes…
Two – And you?
One – Me?
Two – How long has it been?
One – I don’t know… It must be… Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever been here before, have I?
Two – No… No, me neither…
The other also looks around.
One – In any case, it hasn’t changed at all.
Two – No…
Silence.
One – Then again…
Two – What?
One – How can we know it hasn’t changed, if we’ve never been here before?
The other looks around again.
Two – There’s nothing here. How do you expect it to have changed?
One – True… Nothingness doesn’t change, does it?
Two – No.
A pause.
One – Do you know what Nietzsche said about nothingness?
Two – No… (He expects the other to enlighten him, but the other says nothing.) What did he say?
One – No idea…
Two – Then why are you asking me what Nietzsche said about nothingness?
One – Well… To find out… I thought perhaps you knew…
Two – What Nietzsche said about nothingness? You thought I knew that?
One – You’re right, it’s stupid. Besides, maybe he never said anything at all.
Two – About nothingness?
One – Yeah.
Two – Saying nothing about nothingness is probably the best thing to do, isn’t it?
One – Yeah…
Two – You must be confusing him with Sartre.
One – Sartre said something about nothingness?
Two – I think so, yes… Didn’t he?
One – Yes, maybe.
Two – But what…?
One – That…
8 – Hell
Lights up.
One character, male or female, is there. Another arrives.
Two – You’re still here…?
One – Where do you expect me to be?
Two – True, you’re right…
A pause.
One – So we’re being informal now?
Two – I don’t know… Yes… Why not? Were we more formal before?
One – Before what?
Two – Before… Before we stopped being formal…
One – I don’t know… I can’t remember.
Two – Neither can I.
One – Would you rather we stayed formal?
Two – No, no… After all this time we’ve known each other…
One – Of course… (A pause) Actually, I can’t remember… Where did we meet again?
Two – Here, I think.
One – Right…
Two – What?
One – Didn’t we say we’d never been here before? That it was our first time?
Two – Yes…
One – How could we have met here, if we’d never been here before?
Two – Ah yes, you’ve got a point there.
One – Well, yes…
Two – It’s strange. And yet your face did ring a bell.
One – Oh yes…? And what did my face say?
Two – I had the feeling I’d seen you somewhere before.
One – Then we must have met somewhere else.
Two – Yes… (A pause) Somewhere else…?
One – If we didn’t meet here… or anywhere else, then we never met before, did we?
Two – Yes, that makes sense…
One – Which means that, in reality… we don’t know each other?
Two – Yeah…
Silence.
One – So why are we on first-name terms?
Two – Maybe we knew each other… in another life.
One – What do you mean, another life? You only live once, don’t you? Well, I don’t know… That’s what I’ve always been told…
Two – I do have an explanation, but I don’t know whether you’re going to like it.
One – At this point…
Two – If you only live once, if we’ve never met here or anywhere else, and yet we know each other… it means we’re nowhere.
One – And above all, it means we’re dead…
Two – I can’t see any other explanation. Can you?
One – No, neither can I. (A pause) And… what would we have died of, then?
Two – What?
One – Yes, what. We must have died of something, mustn’t we?
Two – So I tell you we’re dead, and the first question that comes into your head is what we died of?
One – There’s no need to be unpleasant… I’m starting to wonder whether we shouldn’t go back to being formal after all.
Two – I don’t know… There are lots of ways to die… but the result is the same, isn’t it?
One – Yes, that’s not wrong…
A pause.
Two – The question is whether we’re in heaven or in hell.
One – We must be in hell.
Two – Why?
One – It’s very hot, isn’t it?
Two – Yeah, now I understand the expression “you’ll burn in hell”.
One – In heaven, they must have air conditioning. And besides… in heaven, shouldn’t we be alone?
Two – Alone? You mean in solitary confinement?
One – True, in prison it’s to punish difficult inmates that they put them in solitary.
Two – So why do you say that in heaven we should be alone?
One – Wasn’t it Sartre who said: “Hell is other people”?
Two – Sartre? Yes, maybe…
One – If hell is other people, then in heaven you must be alone, right?
Two – That would be logical, anyway.
A pause.
One – We remember nothing. Why do I remember Sartre?
Two – And Nietzsche.
One – Do you remember anything?
Two – I don’t know… I remember… that it was already hot.
One – Hot?
Two – Very hot.
One – But hot… like here?
Two – Yes, that’s it… Like hell. But on Earth.
One – So that’s how we died…?
Two – How?
One – Heatstroke. It happens.
Two – Yes… Maybe we’d gone hiking in the desert, without water, and died of thirst.
One – Or maybe we all died.
Two – All of us? The end of the world, you mean?
One – The end of Humanity, at any rate.
Two – Then why are there only two of us?
One – Maybe we were the last two.
Two – Maybe… Just as Adam and Eve were the first two.
One – What’s certain is that here, it doesn’t exactly look like the Garden of Eden.
Two – No… It looks more like…
One – Nothing.
Two – Yeah.
One – I remember too. It was very hot.
Two – Every year, it was a little hotter.
One – All the trees died.
Two – The Earth became a desert.
One – We had no water left.
Two – We ended up dying of thirst.
A pause.
One – But then… are we in hell, or are we still on Earth?
Two – What difference does it make?
One – You’re right… What’s the point of hell, when we managed to turn the Earth into a furnace?
A pause.
Two – It’s strange, though…
One – What?
Two – Are you thirsty?
One – No.
Two – Neither am I.
One – It seems that when you’re dead, you’re no longer thirsty.
Two – There has to be some advantage to being dead. (A pause) We’re no longer thirsty… but we’re still just as hot.
One – Which goes to show you shouldn’t always trust popular expressions.
Two – What expression?
One – To ice someone. Meaning to kill them.
Two – Yeah… All of Humanity has been iced. And yet we’re still just as hot.
One – We are very little indeed.
Two – That reminds me of the story of the frog that wanted to be as big as the ox.
One – And swelled up so much that it burst.
Two – Or those financial bubbles people used to talk about on the stock market. Humanity was living in a bubble, and in the end it burst.
One – Which goes to show that philosophers talk a lot of rubbish too.
Two – Philosophers?
One – Nietzsche, about soap bubbles supposedly knowing more than anyone else about happiness.
Two – Yeah. All of Humanity was a soap bubble.
One – And in the end it burst.
Two – Pop… And there you are. Nothing left.
One – Until the next bubble.
Two – Which will burst in turn long before it reaches the stars.
One – Yes, we are soap bubbles.
Two – But who blows the bubbles…?
The first character starts blowing bubbles again, as at the beginning.