Pièces courtes 2

For this second collection, short-play goldsmith Daniel Keene offers readers and actors fourteen brief texts like so many short stories, borrowing different dramatic forms: from monologue to dialogue, duets and narratives.

With strong, chiseled language, he embarks on a journey to the end of humanity. Juggling between fantasy and reality, he evokes in turn the banality of life at times, troubled motherhood, disrupted fatherhood or devastated childhood.

These rather dark pieces nevertheless hint at hope. When he addresses the end of an era, it's to offer a touching requiem, like an advent. When he shows the last limit of human life, it's all the better to laugh at it with tenderness. This is great Keene, with many truly moving pieces.