Backstage Bits / Brèves de coulisses
Voice: Suno
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Backstage Bits explores the hidden world of the theatre through the eyes of an actor just before stepping onto the stage. More than a depiction of backstage in its literal sense, the song focuses on that threshold where the actor is transformed into a character.
The lyrics question the very nature of identity. What remains of the person once the performance begins? Is the character a mask, or a revelation? These questions, central to dramatic art since Antiquity, are expressed here in a poetic and accessible way.
The song also draws a constant parallel between theatre and everyday life. The scenes of daily existence become the many roles we all assume as circumstances change. Theatre thus becomes a metaphor for the human condition, where each of us seeks a place between who we are, who we appear to be, and who we aspire to become.
Backstage takes on a symbolic dimension: it becomes the in-between space where certainties fade, identities are transformed, and the boundaries between reality and fiction become blurred.
Carried by an elegant and light-hearted swing style, Backstage Bits pays tribute to the world of theatre while offering a universal reflection on identity, performance and the role that play itself has in our lives.
The complete lyrics of Backstage Bits are presented here together with the audio recording.
Song inspired by Jean-Pierre Martinez’s plays Backstage Bits and Stage briefs
https://jeanpierremartinez.net/en/backstage-bits/
https://jeanpierremartinez.net/en/stage-briefs/
Lyrics of the song
Trop tard pour reculer
Comédien, comédienne
Les trois coups sont frappés
Il faut entrer en scène
Au sortir de chez soi
Une dernière fois
Marchant sur le boulevard
Craignant d’être en retard
On a repassé son texte
En silence dans sa tête
Nous voilà au théâtre
On a franchi la porte
Par l’entrée des artistes
Oui, puisqu’en quelque sorte
Ce soir c’est nous l’artiste
C’est nous qu’on vient voir
Et qu’on vient applaudir
Nous voici dans la loge
On quitte nos habits
On sort de notre vie
Pour revêtir la toge
De ce fameux empereur
Qu’on sera pour une heure
Les coulisses d’un théâtre
C’est ce lieu mystérieux
Cet étrange entre deux
Où on laisse son âme
Pour entrer dans une autre
Le temps que dure la flamme
La lumière des projos
Avant le noir final
Comédien, personnage
Quelle est la vérité
Est-ce celui que l’on est
Celui qu’on a été
Ou celui qu’on sera
Celui qu’on voudrait être
Celui qu’on paraît, être
Ou bien celui qu’on cache
Dire que l’on ment, est-ce dire la vérité
Ne sommes-nous pas plus vrai
Sous une autre identité
Que celle qu’on nous a imposée
Les coulisses métamorphose
Entre le vrai, le faux
La frontière imprécise
D’une vie indécise
Entre la vie, la mort
Mourir revivre encore
Et quand on sort de scène
Faire le chemin à l’envers
Au théâtre comme dans la vie
Sur scène comme à la ville
Nous jouons tous un personnage
Dont le texte est déjà écrit
Mais au théâtre on le choisit
Les coulisses, c’est ce no man’s land
Où le comédien n’est personne
Entre sa personnalité qu’il abandonne
Et la vérité de son personnage
Le théâtre est l’allégorie de la vie
De notre entrée en scène
Jusqu’à notre sortie
C’est notre condition humaine
Sous les yeux du public
On vit, on meurt, on aime
Too Late to Turn Back
Actor, actress
The curtain call is near
The three knocks have been struck
It’s time to appear
Leaving home behind
One last time tonight
Walking down the boulevard
Afraid of being late
Running through the lines once more
Silently inside your head
Now we’re at the theatre
We’ve stepped through the door
By the artists’ entrance
For in a way, it’s true
Tonight we are the artists
The ones they’ve come to see
The ones they’ll applaud
Now we’re in the dressing room
We leave our clothes behind
We step out of our lives
To put on the robe
Of that famous emperor
We’ll become for just an hour
The wings of a theatre
Are a mysterious place
A strange in-between world
Where we leave one soul behind
To step into another
For as long as the flame lasts
As long as the spotlights shine
Before the final blackout
Actor, character
Which one is the truth?
The person that we are
Or the one that we once were?
Or the one we’ll become
The one we’d like to be
The one we seem to be
Or the one we keep hidden?
If we say we’re lying, are we telling the truth?
Are we not more real
Beneath another identity
Than the one imposed on us?
Backstage is a metamorphosis
Between the true and the false
The blurred frontier
Of an uncertain life
Between life and death
Dying and living again
And when we leave the stage
We walk the journey backwards
In theatre as in life
On stage as in the world
We all play a character
Whose lines are already written
But in theatre, we choose the role
Backstage is a no man’s land
Where the actor is nobody
Between the self they abandon
And the truth of the character
The theatre is an allegory of life
From our entrance on stage
To our final exit
It is the human condition
Before the audience’s eyes
We live, we die, we love
You can listen to this song freely on this website. For any other use, please contact Jean-Pierre Martinez via the website’s contact form.