A sketch by Jean-Pierre Martinez
One – So that’s it…
Two – Yes, it seems so.
One – We thought it would never happen here.
Two – No.
Pause.
One – Do you think we could have done something to stop it…?
Two – Can you stop the tide from rising…?
One – That’s true. It was like a tide.
Two – A human tide.
One – It rose very slowly.
Two – Over a very long time.
One – Inexorably.
Pause.
Two – At first they called it “de-demonisation”.
One – They called it free speech.
Two – Even freedom of expression.
One – And then we went from the right to stupidity to the dictatorship of stupidity.
Two – It began with censorship.
One – It continued with self-censorship.
Two – Keeping your head down.
One – So as not to put yourself in danger.
Two – They’ll do what they did elsewhere, you’ll see. They’ll start by breaking the law.
One – And then they’ll change the law.
Two – We won’t be able to say anything anymore. We’ll only be able to repeat.
One – Repeat what others are already saying.
Two – Without even thinking about it.
One – Even thinking will become dangerous.
Two – Even existing will become dangerous.
One – We’ll have to erase who we are.
Two – We’ll have to erase everything.
One – They’ll start by reading our mail.
Two – They’ll end up reading our thoughts.
One – Until the day we’re no longer really human.
Two – Until the day we’ve become animals again.
One – Social animals.
Two – Until the day we become termites.
One – Feeding on the beams of their own house.
Two – Until the roof collapses and buries them.
One – Then all humanity will have disappeared.
Pause.
Two – Can the current still be reversed?
One – The tide always goes out in the end, doesn’t it?
Two – And what if this time it wasn’t just a simple tide? What if it were…
One – The rise of murky waters, caused by political decay.
Two – Then there’s nothing left to be done…
One – When the mud has finished covering the city, the rats will come out of the sewers and invade the streets.
Two – They’re already roaming freely on social networks.
Blackout.
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A sketch from the collection Of Animals and Men
Link to the collection for free download (PDF)
Find all of Jean-Pierre Martinez’s plays on his website:
https://jeanpierremartinez.net