A selection of chamber plays by French playwright Jean-Pierre Martinez, available in English. These intimate contemporary works are designed for small casts and focus on relationships, confrontation, psychological tension and the dynamics between characters.
Chamber theatre relies less on elaborate staging than on dialogue, acting and the intensity created by a limited number of characters sharing the same dramatic space. The intimacy of the form allows humour, emotion and conflict to develop at close range.
Chamber Theatre is also sometimes called “black box theatre” or “studio theatre,” as it typically takes place in a simple, unadorned black box or studio space with a few basic props and set pieces.
Browse the plays below to discover their synopses, cast information, scripts available for reading and information about performance rights.
A well-known film director and an ambitious actress happen to meet on the Eurostar, seated opposite each other. Both are headed to London for an audition. She is willing to do anything to land the role that will make her a star. He is drawn to her charm but is unsure about taking it further... Suddenly, the train stops in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The breakdown trick? But in this game of trickery, he is not who she thinks he is. Nor is she who he thought she was...
After being dumped once again, Fred swore to his best friend that no girl would sleep over at his place until the end of the year. A few months later, he is on the verge of winning his bet and the hefty cheque that came with it. But on the eve of Christmas, one is never safe from a surprise gift...
Mark and Peter are actors, who were once friends but haven’t seen each other for years after their friendship turned into a rivalry, both professionally and in their romantic lives. Now one of them has invited the other on the stage of a theatre to rebuild the friendship they lost with their youth. This attempt at a reconciliation will turn into a settling of scores before opening up the possibility of an unexpected collaboration.
About the exciting adventure of living together. Sketchs
On a plane, the director of a sensationalist magazine coincidentally meets an embalmer, who claims to have a bombshell news, making her dream of a record-braking circulation. Things get complicated because this encounter takes place on a Paris-Tokyo flight: twelve hours in confinement with no way to communicate with the outside world. Holding a scoop but being unable to publish it... A true Japanese torture!
On the platform of a suburban railway station, a man and a woman who don’t know each other are waiting for the train that will take them to the new destiny they have chosen for themselves. But this 8:30 train, which they used to take in the past, has been canceled. The next one is only three hours later. This presents them with an unlikely encounter that could potentially change the course of their lives…
On New Year’s Eve, a man is on duty at the Forensic Institute. One hour before midnight, a woman appears in front of him, covered only by a sheet. She doesn’t know who she is or where she comes from. And what was shaping up to be a deadly dull New Year’s Eve at the morgue turns out to be full of surprises… A comedy with multiple twists and turns, absurdly romantic and darkly humorous.
A man and a woman encounter each other daily at a café, discreetly observing one another from separate tables, filled with curiosity but hesitant to initiate conversation. Will they yield to the longing for a rendezvous, uncertain if reality will match their mutual fantasies? While exploring the potential of deepening their connection, they also face the inevitable narrowing of options. Holding onto the preliminary stage of their interaction means risking missing out on what truly matters.
A journalist visits a playwright on the down and out for an interview that could launch his comeback. But in the world of theatre, appearances can be deceiving…
An aging novelist on the brink of suicide is visited by a young woman who claims to have lost her cat. A visit that will change his life…