Bare hand

Carroll Lewis

Galli Augusto

Josefine (?)

Drexler Franz

Choisy Laure

Since 2019, the Musée des Arts de la Marionnette (MAM) has been collaborating with the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 and the team of Didier Plassard, professor and head of the PuppetPlays European research programme. 
As part of this project, the MAM - Gadagne documentation centre has made its collection of Guignol repertoires available for digitisation, analysis and distribution on the Puppetplays online platform.
The most popular Guignol plays are comedies such as Le Déménagement, Les Frères Koch and Le Pot de confiture. But other genres have also contributed to the puppet's success, including fairy tales, military plays and parodies. 
The lectures and readings on this day aim to show the huge variety of these shows, the diversity of their audiences and the contexts in which they were performed. The recent discovery of manuscripts performed by puppeteers from Lyon in Paris between 1866 and 1868 will also provide an opportunity to reflect on the language of Guignol and its evolution.
PuppetPlays is a research project funded by the European Union as part of its Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under Grant Agreement 835193.

Conference 5 - Metatheatricality and topicality in the Guignol repertoire

Skirted hobby horse

In the spring, around 1840 in Paris, Jean-François Billembois, a young artisan-carpenter, struggles to find the words to describe to his friend Pancrace the show he saw the night before at the Théâtre des Funambules. Nanette, a sweet young girl, arrives and reminds Billembois that he promised to take her on a walk to Montmorency the following Sunday. But Billembois finds an excuse to break his promise. When Pancrace expresses surprise at this change of heart, Billembois confides that he is madly in love with the beautiful Zéphyrine, an actress at the Théâtre des Funambules, but that he loses his nerve every time he sees her. His friend Pancrace invites him for a drink to cheer him up. Across from Billembois's shop, in a former mansion, a mysterious foreigner, Mr Tenorio, has taken up residence. Pursued to his home by Anaïs, an old bigot, Tenorio instructs Jasmin, his servant, not to let anyone in. Old Anaïs accuses Tenorio of using the church to spy on the prettiest women and seduce them with his devilish ways. After a torrent of curses, Anaïs faints in front of the seducer's door. She is rescued by some women and taken to the herbalist, Mrs Fouillechat. In the evening, on the deserted street, Ratapoil appears, a strange figure in uniform who knocks on Tenorio's door and introduces himself as the Commander. But Jasmin does not let him in. In the back room of the herbalist-witch's shop, Billembois, in despair, complains to Madame Fouillechat that none of the potions or talismans she has given him have made Zéphyrine fall in love with him. She attempts an incantation, but is regularly interrupted by the arrival of other customers. She then asks Billembois to go home and perform a ritual by plucking three hairs, which she will incorporate into a love cake intended for Zéphirine. Meanwhile, Jasmin comes to fetch rejuvenating enemas for his master and a remedy for his fear. When questioned by Mrs Fouillechat, he reveals that Mr Tenorio is in fact the famous Don Juan (albeit aged), who fled Spain to escape the vengeance of the Commander he killed. But the Commander has found Don Juan and has been knocking on their door every night for a week. Jasmin, proud to serve such an illustrious master, makes Mrs Fouillechat swear to keep the secret. When Billembois returns, Mrs Fouillechat changes her plan and sends him to her neighbour Mr Tenorio, so that he can teach him the secret of the secret of making women love him. Meanwhile, Jasmin complains to Mrs Fouillechat that rejuvenating enemas she preapared for his master are ineffective. Offended, Mrs Fouillechat publicly reveals that Tenorio is none other than the famous Don Juan, now ravaged by old age. Hearing this, the other women, fascinated by the presence of the mythical seducer, bombard Jasmin with questions about him and end up quarrelling. Meanwhile, Zéphyrine manages to break into Tenorio's house. In the countryside, in Montmorency, near a guinguette, everyone is gathered together, walking, playing music, singing, dancing or flirting. Zéphyrine allows herself to be seduced by Don Juan and regains her confidence. Billembois falls in love with Nanette, whose purity of soul he perceives, and immediately forgets Don Juan's secret. The Commander has followed Don Juan's trail to Montmorency. Don Juan sees Nanette and wants to seduce her, but she rejects him, calling him ‘old’. It is then that Don Juan accepts the Commander's punishment, as his life as a seducer is over. Hailed as the glory of having been Don Juan's last mistress, Zéphyrine is courted by the wealthy Arthur. While Billembois is overjoyed to have found true love, Nanette seems lost in her thoughts, and her last line refers to the colour of Don Juan's eyes.

Baty Gaston

France

Paris

Conte fantastique en cinq scènes pour marionnettes

Le Miroir aux alouettes (variation sur le mythe à Don Juan)

Arrest

Basket

Beard

Border

Burglar

Burn-out

Calm

Court life

Crib

Enemy

Energy

Futur

Migrant

Music

Revenant

Sarrasins

School

Swindling

Talking cinema

Uniformity

Biblioteca comunale dell'archiginnasio

Huma-Num

IdRef

Isidore

Jagiellonian Library

Münchner Stadtmuseum

Musée de la Vie Wallonne

Musée des Arts de la Marionnette - Gadagne

Nakala

Pôle International de la Marionnette – Jacques Félix

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Université Haute Alsace

The play takes place on a island of dreams. Mère-Grand learns that Myrrhine has distanced herself from her five sisters to dream on her own by the sea. She worries about it, as this daydreaming can only carry the young woman off towards reality. Myrrhine confirms that the “bandeau d’illusion” (the blindfold of illusion) has indeed been lifted from her eyes, and that she no longer believes in fairytales, only in love: she loves the Chevalier Tavonin (Knight Tavonin) and believes that she is loved by him too. The Knight appears on a small boat with Aurore, his new lover, and rejects Myrrhine. In her despair, she calls on the Génie des Arbres (the Genie of the Trees) and the Fée des Mousses (the Moss Fairy), but they are powerless—they cannot console her now that she has lost her illusions. Myrrhine kills herself by jumping into the sea. Mère-Grand blames her death on the Knight, but he replies saying that he is Love incarnated and that all of Myrrhine’s sisters will suffer the same fate, as their eyes will eventually be opened too.

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