Suzanne de Baecque & Joaquim Fossi

Joaquim emerges dejected from a long relationship, his first and only love story, which he envisioned lasting a lifetime. Fortunately, Suzanne, her experience, and her good advice are there to get him back on the flirting track — or back on the market. Like a sentimental education in the era of mobile phones, Short Message Service deploys narratives, practical experiments, and songs across seven chapters where romance is never far away.

Conceived as a reimagining of Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse: Fragments, the play is also the result of documentary work. Suzanne de Baecque and Joaquim Fossi gathered testimonials and snippets of conversation from their circle, in the street, or on their own phones. At various moments, the audience is invited to text messages to a phone number that appear on stage, like a series of romantic haikus.