Collection of sketches by Jean-Pierre Martinez
Open Hearts is a collection of short dialogues for two or three characters, all set in the same bistro, opposite a hospital. These scenes blend dark humour, tenderness, absurdity, and emotion, revolving around a central theme: the heart — in its medical, sentimental, symbolic, or metaphorical sense.
Through often unexpected conversations, customers open up, fall in love, part ways, reunite, or wait for a miracle… The bistro owner, a figure both disillusioned and kind-hearted, weaves through the sketches like a common thread — sometimes a silent witness, sometimes a confidant. People come here for a coffee, for comfort… or for a sense of meaning in their lives.
The collection forms a coherent dramatic cycle, with recurring motifs: heart transplants, organ donation, breakups, improbable reunions, peculiar dishes or drinks, and that perilous street serving as a metaphor for life itself.
Beneath its light or caustic tone, Open Hearts subtly explores our attachments, our choices, and what it means to give or keep one’s heart — literally or otherwise.
List of sketches
1 – Heart up for grabs
2 – Tender-hearted
3 – Heavy-hearted
4 – Queasy heart
5 – Gift of the heart
6 – Heartache
7 – Heartbeats
8 – One heart for two
9 – The heart on the sleeve
10 – Wholeheartedly
11 – A brand new heart
12 – Hearts in harmony
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)
