Collection of sketches by Jean-Pierre Martinez
Nicotine is a collection of sixteen dialogued sketches, all set on an office terrace — a marginal, transitional space, neither quite outside nor truly inside — where employees come to smoke, vape, or simply breathe.
Most of these scenes, usually involving two or three characters, take place on the fringes of work but reveal its deepest effects: existential malaise, hierarchical absurdity, loneliness, meaningless routines, and attempts at connection or escape.
The dialogues are sharp, natural, and funny, always carried by a living language full of gentle irony and clear-eyed observation. There is no single recurring character, yet the universe is remarkably coherent: the same broken lives, the same modest hopes, the same pauses in a machine that never stops turning.
List of sketches
The Particles
Old-School Flirting
A Twist of Fate
Stray Cats
Empedocles’ Sandals
With or Without a Filter
Nothing to Laugh About
Vested Interest
Import Export
Died for Finance
New Horizons
Retirement
A Touch of the Blues
Ministry of Planning
Last Cigarette
Mrs. Claus
All the texts available on this site can be downloaded for free. However, performance rights, which constitute fair compensation for the author’s work, are a legal obligation. Whether you are an amateur or a professional, you must request authorization to perform the play and pay the corresponding royalties for the production. To get in touch with Jean-Pierre Martinez and ask an authorization to represent one of his works: Contact form.
Download the entire collection free of charge (PDF) : combined version, sketch version
