A marquis with a suggestive name (the Marquis de Coquencu, literally Marquis of Rooster-in-ass) exposes his run of bad luck to the audience: him and the Marquise (Marchioness) cannot conceive a child. He uses different tricks, such as stimulating drugs or increasingly bizarre sexual games to finally have an heir. However, the Marquise’s moods change from one extreme to the other; she beats the Marquis, and feigns a feeling of faintness to have an affair with the Domestique (Servant). In the second act, two new characters hide in the bushes to defecate, leading to numerous scatological jokes, most notably when the Marquise, pregnant, assures that she enjoys the smell of excrement to the point of asking the Marquis to bring them back to their place and cook them. The play ends with another domestic quarrel.

Glove-puppet

Adults

Rolland Amédée

Jean Duboys (Jean-Charles Du Boys)

France

Paris

Printed

Eroticism

Pornography

Licentiousness

Sexuality

Adultery

Scatology

Servant

Couple

Pregnancy

Farcical

Erotic

Comical

Le Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1866 edition). Anonymous illustration.

French

Toucher de la merde c’est signe d’argent

Erotic scene

Scene of copulation

Aria

Song

Comedy of language

Situation comedy

Defecation on stage

Argument

Seduction scene

Signe d'argent

Sign of money

Due to an economic crisis, all performances were suspended and the puppets were stored in plastic bags. Only the Economico puppet, which can play all the characters by simply changing its head, continues to perform. Arlecchino has had his mask taken away and his heart has fled in search of it. Even his stick has abandoned him: without his mask, Arlequin's wrinkled old face no longer makes anyone laugh. Ginetto the rabbit is afraid of having his ears cut off, Colombine is the victim of a hysterical pregnancy, and Crocodile, like an accountant collecting taxes, is always ready to swallow anything. However, the puppets trapped in the bags manage to free themselves by breaking the regime imposed by the Economico and, following Arlecchino, go in search of lost fairy tales and a beating heart.

Bare hand

Not specified

Brunello Gigio

Molnár Gyula (aka Giulio Molnár)

Italy

Mogliano Veneto

Economic crisis

Financial crisis

Poetry

Fairy

Heart

Stick

Tale

Rabbit

Absurd

Fantasy

Italian

Generico

Arlecchino

Batocchio

Colombina

Balanzone

Brighella

Postman

Crocodile

Change of size on sight

Childbirth on stage

Captatio benevolentiae

Engulfment

Personified object

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Visual distortion

Allegory

Blow-with-a-stick

Political allegory

Address to the public

Rehearsal (play within a play)

Come gli Etruschi uscirono dalla crisi

In an American high school, a group of girls decide to make a secret pact. They choose to get pregnant together, then flee their town and found a female community. When the headmaster realises what is happening, he tries to cover it up, fearing confrontation with parents and the media, but inevitably everything comes to light. The girls inform their boyfriends of their pregnancies by text message, and then they organise their escape. The parents' cries will not deter them from their intentions. On the contrary, these same cries will turn into reflections on their own faults and on the causes of this shocking pact.

Signe d'argent

Come gli Etruschi uscirono dalla crisi

Sorry, boys

Discussions about a secret pact for 12 severed heads