The text is a part of the collection La Conjecture de Babel et autres textes (The Conjecture of Babel and other stories) that consists of seven plays written between 1976 and 1996 on the very topic of puppetry arts. In 2005, Un instant suicidaire received the aid for dramatic creation from the Direction de Musique de la Danse, du Théâtre et des Spectacles. The text written by Éloi Recoing has been translated into Italian by Armando Lo Monaco under the title Un istante suicida, and into German by Corinna Popp under the title Ein Augenblick von Todeslust.

Éloi Recoing staged his own play, which he described as a “puppet opera”. For this text dedicated to the “memory of an angel”, and which evokes the suicide of a young girl, he drew his inspiration from the aesthetic of the Japanese bunraku – two puppeteers, a narrator, and the music composed by David Recoing, his son. The puppet of Clara, the teenager who committed suicide, was created by Maryse Le Bris. Videos of teenagers are projected at the back of the stage and contribute to the elegiac tone of the play. The introductory stage direction specifies that the place of action is a remembrance edifice. In his note of intent, the author indicates that “the theatre becomes the place of her possible resurrection”. He adds that the tales of her death “indirectly draw a picture of happiness”.

Clara, a young teenage girl, has killed herself. The day after, the Arpenteur (surveyor) questions several of her relatives to try and understand the circumstances of her death. Whilst he looks for the reasons that led to this act, he also tries to grasp the reasons that motivate him to live. Each of Clara’s relatives describe memories they had with her and provide contradictory stories of her last moments. Dylan, her boyfriend, admits he felt that she had no desire to live. From the hereafter, Clara observes the same feeling in others. She hears the song that Dylan hums for her and tries to call for him, but to his eyes, she remains invisible. Adrien, Pierre, and Sylvain, whose job is to start fires, say that they saw Clara with the Passeur (the ferryman). In a flashback, we can see Clara asking the Passeur to choose how she is going to die. A chorus of naiads then describes how she drowned in the river. The Arpenteur asks the Passeur to bring Clara back from the dead. The Arpenteur solves a riddle, and the Passeur allows those who were close to Clara to see her one last time. Clara appears and sees how they all suffer, but she reassures them and tells them that she is happier dead than alive.