In order to help his mater Octavio marry Isabelle (Cintio’s daughter), Mezetin becomes Cintio’s servant. Cintio and the Doctor are looking for the Philosopher’s Stone. Arlequin and Mezetin dress as chimney sweeps and make the story of La Belle Maguelone into a puppet show, during which they give Octavio’s letter to Isabelle. Arlequin cross-dresses as a viscountess and fails to convince a marquis and the Doctor to share their secrets. Octavio proposes to Isabelle, but Cintio forbids their union. Quacks show up to an assembly called by the Doctor, and they are driven out by Polichinel. The quacks boast about their inventions, but they run away when they see Mezetin and Pierrot, who are respectively dressed as a Commissaire (commissioner) and a Clerc (clerk). The Commissaire tells Cintio that Isabelle has been abducted. Octavio comes forward to save her. When Isabelle comes back, Cintio still forbids their marriage. But Octavio threatens to report him for having invited counterfeiters. Everyone goes watch Mars and Apollon’s fight on the Place des Victoires (Victory square). Cintio finally accepts Octavio as his son-in-law.

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Alchemy

Philosopher's stone

False Scientist

Science

Invention

Fake kidnapping

Forger

Rivalry of theatres

Comical

Satirical

Arlequin holding the curiosité. Frontispiece of Les Souffleurs, 1694.

French

ou la Pierre philosophale d'Arlequin

Il Dottore (Commedia dell'arte)

Cintio

Isabelle

Marinette

Arlecchino

Octavio

Mezetin

Pierrot

Chimney sweeper

Vicomtess

Marquis

Seneschal

Colombine

Pasquariello

Polichinelle

Knight

Police Superintendant

Clerk

Goldsmith

Mars

Victoria

Warrior

Apollo

Themis

Minerva

Arts

Disguise

Letter

Cross-dressing

Jack of all trades

Allegory

Pantomime

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Storyteller

Les Souffleurs

The Alchemists

In a dusty underground passageway of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, several historical and legendary inventors discuss the automatons they have built. Each one talks about their inventions, dreams or utopian visions: a bronze fly to chase away real flies, a hydraulic theatre, giant automata with colossal voices preaching peace, mechanical lions and magic apples, two metal heads with superhuman voices, and an automaton that knows every language. Suddenly, a human automaton—the robot—appears. The robot knocks over all the characters and throws Jaquet-Droz to the ground, just as he was explaining that the word written on a sheet of paper by his writing automaton was ‘marvellous’.

Automate

Phantom

Discussions

Remembrance

Rivalry

Merveilleux

Fantastic

Albert le Grand

Héron d'Alexandrie

Virgile de Naples

Regiomontanus

Roger Bacon

Thomas de Bungey

Johann Wolfgang von Kempelen

Léonard de Vinci

L'Abbé Mical

Jacques Droz

Automaton

Robot

Jacques Vaucanson

Inserting poetry

Aside

Apparition of a ghost

Off-stage noise

Succession de personnages

Voice

Destruction of a puppet

Au paradis des fantômes

In ghost paradise

Invited to the international convention of handymen in Chicago, Dr. Haase builds a rocket to go there. Two gangsters witness the landing and try to steal the rocket, but Haase manages to flee and goes to see Turnip, the organiser of the convention; the convention is actually an excuse invented to attract the German scientist. Turnip looks for ways to corrupt Haase, his daughter Elvyra tries to seduce him, and the gangster Bill tries to kill him. With the help of the black servant Ann, Haase manages to flee with the rocket and, at the same time, saves Ann’s son Tom from a lynching.

Young audiences

Hoke Werner

Germany

Leipzig

Criminal

Rocket

Money

Capitalism

Corruption

German Democratic Republic (GDR)

America

Debauchery

Cabaret

Seduction

Racism

Front cover of the collection Drei Puppenspiele

German

Satirisches Puppenspiel für große Kinder

Gangster

Policeman

Fake death

Brawl

Trap

Running away

Macaronism

Bawdy equivocation

Die Amerikareise

The trip to America

The protagonist, Franz, is a young Viennese scientist who, during a hypnosis session conducted by Mesmer, learns that his cousin Angèlica, with whom he is in love, is in great danger. He decides to go to her rescue and, after many adventures, arrives in Budapest to find that she has just died. Convinced that she has been hypnotised by the alchemist Adam Le Fay, he keeps her body in ice, brings her back to his laboratory and tries various experiments to resurrect her. He fails and is accused of her murder by Napoleonic troops who have just entered Vienna. Sentenced to death, he is saved at the last moment by Le Fay who explains to him that if one of them dies, the other also perishes. They duel, Franz throws himself on Le Fay's sword, and both die at the same time. It is clear that they are two sides of the same personality, symbolising the conflict between rationalism and superstition.

Les Souffleurs

ou la Pierre philosophale d'Arlequin

Au paradis des fantômes

Die Amerikareise

Satirisches Puppenspiel für große Kinder

La mirada de l'alquimista

Obra per a titelles i actors