A Sketch by Jean-Pierre Martinez
Two characters, bohemian style, stare straight ahead.
One – Remember? When we moved here, all around us were fields.
Two – There were even cows.
One – And you could still see the river flowing. I used to go fishing there when I was a kid.
Two – Now it runs under the parking lot of the shopping centre, in a big pipe. And our house is surrounded by council flats.
One – Yeah… We used to live in the countryside, and without moving, now we live in the city.
Two – When you stay still for too long, you end up somewhere else without even realising it, because the world around us has changed.
One – Same with us. In ’68 we were rebels, and now we’re just old farts.
Two – And yet, we don’t feel like we’ve changed.
One – We were born in the era of record players, we invented the Walkman to listen to music while walking, but in the end, we didn’t really go anywhere.
Two – We’ve been treading water.
One – And now, here we are.
Two – In an estate, surrounded by young people who don’t speak the same language as us anymore.
One – Yet we tried to educate them.
Two – Offered them discounted tickets to the theater for the classics
One – They preferred to do rap.
Two – I can’t stand rap.
Pause.
One – Are you planning to go to the Avignon Festival this summer?
Two – I’m not sure. The Avignon Festival isn’t what it used to be.
One – I remember the Cour d’Honneur in the time of Jean Vilar.
Two – He tried to educate the masses by bringing them the great classics at home in their remote provinces.
One – Racine, Sophocles, Shakespeare…
Two – It didn’t last long either.
One – In the “IN” there are only retired teachers, and in the “OFF” there are only one-man shows.
Two – Today, everyone can get on a stage in a garage and tell their life story to their friends.
One – It’s like social media.
Two – Maybe that’s finally the dictatorship of the proletariat.
One – Yeah… The left-wing newspapers have no more readers.
Two – And the Socialist Party has no more voters.
One – Except for a few old farts like us.
Two – What if we moved?
One – Where to?
Two – To the countryside.
One – That’s what we did back in ’68. But the city caught up with us…
Two – Apparently, we didn’t go far enough…
Fade to black.
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A sketch from the collection Enough is enough!
Link to the collection for free download (PDF)
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https://jeanpierremartinez.net