The play's premise? "Bertrand is about to commit suicide when there's a knock at his door. He opens it. A man, with a mustache and a gun, is there to kill him." Or, more succinctly: "It's not easy to end your life when someone's trying to murder you." A story that could just as easily be a dark nightmare. The tale of an encounter, one no one could have imagined, one that almost seems like a big joke: the encounter between a young man in his thirties with suicidal thoughts and a murderer disillusioned by the passage of time. Characters all dressed in black, tightrope walkers and protagonists of a dark comedy by Matthieu Delporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the celebrated duo behind What's in a Name?.

9:10 p.m. The curtain, bathed in the blue light of La Scala, opens onto an apartment living room. Beige tones, carpet on the floor, a few light fixtures, nothing extravagant: in short, utterly ordinary. Bertrand (K. Khojandi), his shoulders slumped and his expression troubled, is busy with his final task: vacuuming a sofa far too drab to suggest a once joyful life. And joy is something he hasn't felt in a long time. His home insurance policy has been canceled, and he's about to jump out of his kitchen window when suddenly, the doorbell rings. In the doorway stands a man in his fifties (E. Elmosnino, now replaced by Jonathan Lambert starting in April), his face grim, peeking out from under a beige raincoat, a pistol in his hand. Bertrand's lucky day: this stranger is there to kill him.

1 hour 22 minutes before the end. The play's title is clear and aptly named. We are invited to witness Bertrand's final moments, which are quite limited in duration: one hour and 22 minutes. During this time, gags follow one after another in an almost surreal and utterly absurd confrontation where the two men gradually become acquainted. Éric Elmosnino plays a killer with a troubled conscience, hesitating and delaying what he came to do, seemingly determined to stay put in the living room armchair. To his left, alternately sitting on the sofa and whirling around the apartment, Kyan Khojandi's character seizes this ludicrous, absurd, and unexpected opportunity, begging his assassin to end his life, to no avail. Meanwhile, we are left wondering: Why is there a price on the head of this somewhat sad, rather dull, and uneventful young man? The answer is a real plot twist, the secrets of which we will keep secret for now.

10:32 p.m. We leave the theater stunned by this perilous countdown, this staging of laughter despite teetering on the edge of the precipice, which makes this double-edged text a delightfully unique play. Between incessant wordplay, a festival of nonsense, and comedic flourishes, it delves into serious themes: loneliness, the reasons for living, existential doubt, without ever glorifying them. In short, a perfectly balanced cocktail that cleverly combines the lighthearted nature of such a comedic duo with the depth of the subject matter. While the pace at the beginning is uneven, the play's major revelation reshuffles the cards for this endearing pair. A story whose layers overlap, oscillating between outright comedy and philosophy, which is therefore remarkable for its originality and the hope it conveys.