Polichinell enters singing, reveling in spring. He stops in a forest for a snack break. A starving dog comes, and he gives it a piece of bread. The dog undergoes a metamorphosis: it actually is Fairy Rosa (Fée Rosa), who was the prisoner of a spell and who is now free of it thanks to Polichinell’s generosity. She wants to reward him, but Polichinell refuses because he wants to stay poor. He meets Herr von Neid (Desire) and accepts to be his servant. The Devil, who wishes for Polichinell’s downfall, rejoices to have brought them together. Neid and his wife Bosheit (Wickedness) overwhelm him with work, but Polichinell manages to complete the work straight away. Bosheit entrusts Polichinell with her little daughter Unart (Bad habit), who will not stop crying, and who accidentally falls out of the window. Bosheit comes back, learns of Unart’s fall, and beats him with a stick. Polichinell fights back, knocks her out, and does the same to Neid. Fairy Rosa advises Polichinell, who has now become rich thanks to Herr von Neil’s assets, to carry on with his good behavior. In Polichinell’s new house, Habakuk, his servant, leaves him after stealing some of his wealth. Türk the dog bites Polichinell’s nose and Hector the horse kicks him before biting him. After many failed attempts, Polichinell manages to climb on Hector’s back, but the horse makes him fall and flees. Herr von Schadenfroh (The One who rejoices from the misfortune of others), who pretends to be Polichinell’s friend, bursts out of laughter after hearing his misadventures. They fight, and Herr von Shadenfroh is killed by Polichinell. Princess Miauline asks Polichinell to deliver her father, the King of Trapezunt, who is the prisoner of the Magician Gewalt (Violence). The Devil unsuccessfully warns Gewalt of Polichinell’s arrival: Gewalt is convinced that his constable Popanz (Straw) will defend him. Polichinell, thanks to an enchanted chime gifted by Fairy Rosa, makes the castle’s guards fall asleep and frees the King of Trapezunt. At the entrance of the palace, he meets Habakuk, who has become Gewalt’s servant and who refuses to let him in. Polichinell beats Habakuk, enchants Gewalt with the chime, fights, and kills him. Habakuk comes back and has Polichinell arrested and brought before Gewalt. After a mock-trial, Polichinell is sentenced to death by hanging. Polichinell is imprisoned and robbed of the talisman which the fairy had given him, and which served as a protection. Habakuk is in charge of Polichinell’s hanging, but Polichinell manages to hang him instead and then kills Popanz and his guards. Polichinell calls the Devil, fights with him, and kills him. The Fairy makes her appearance again and officiates Polichnell and Miauline’s wedding.

Young audiences

Germany

Printed

Wickedness

Reward

Murder

Wealth

Labour

Fantasy

Comical

German

Polichinelle

Fairy

King

Princess

Count

Minister

Policeman

Baby

Domestic servant

Genie

Horse

Devil

Guard

Monologue

Song

Aria

Versified passages

Dance

Metamorphosis

Apparition of the Devil

Blow-with-a-stick

Death on stage

Allegory

Hanging scene

Final wedding

Polichinell

Simple Simon pays a visit to his friend, Simple Susan, whom he thinks is a bit lazy. Simple Susan states that she hates men and that women can do anything better than them. She catcalls four boys, who bark as an answer, and asks them to help her build a house. First, she goes to choose work clothes. Simple Simon calls for her, but she is too busy and refuses his help. When she comes back in work clothes, the four boys bring the house that they have already built - a doll house. She asks them to send a picture of the house to the Daily Mail and to look for a buyer. While she complains about Simple Simon’s selfishness, he reappears, accompanied by a neighbour who thanks him for everything he is willing to do for her: build a carriage, a house, and go for a walk with her. Furious, Simple Susan asks the neighbour what she is going to do to repay Simple Simon. Her answer, “I can look pretty” makes Simple Susan break into pieces.

String marionette

Not specified

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Marina di Pisa

Feminism

Women's condition

House

Jealousy

Obedience

Seduction

Satirical

English

Simple Simon

Address to the public

Character represented in animal form

Splitting of the body

Simple Susan

Simple Susanne

Once again, Fagiolino borrows money from Polonia, Sandrone’s wife, and promises to pay her back as soon as he manages to marry Colombina, the niece of the wealthy Pantalone, and to collect her dowry. Meanwhile, Sandrone makes a deal to buy lands so that he won’t have to work for a landlord any longer. When he discovers that Polonia has taken money from his savings in order to lend it to Fagiolino, he beats her and swears to himself that he will do the same to Fagiolino. In the meantime, Bergnocla, a friend of Fagiolino, warns him that Arlecchino and Brighella are plotting against Pantalone: they have abducted Colombina in order to demand a ransom. While she is kept hidden in Brighella’s inn, they make Pantalone believe that it is the fearsome bandit Sebastian who has abducted her. Moreover, Arlecchino secretly wants to marry Colombina to obtain her dowry. Fagiolino, who is in love with Colombina, manages to foil Arlecchino’s plan: he intercepts Pantalone, who was headed to the bandit’s place with the money for the ransom, pretends to be the bandit himself and takes the money, so that it never falls into Arlecchino and Brighella’s hands. Those two are quarrelling because they each think that the other has betrayed them, and nobody suspects Fagiolino. They also think that the true bandit, Sebastian, is now angry with them because they have used his name for their own purposes. They beg Fagiolino to speak to the bandit and to talk some sense into him. Fagiolino accepts, in exchange for payment, and is delighted about the success of his plan. He pretends to have convinced the bandit to free Colombina and to leave Arlecchino and Brighella in peace. He finally goes to meet Pantalone so that he can be given credit for having convinced the bandit to free Colombina. Pantalone believes him and agrees to give him Colombina’s hand in marriage. Fagiolino goes back to Sandrone’s and pays him back the money he owed him.

Glove-puppet

Reggio Emilia

Money

Wedding

Kidnapping

Ransom

Dowry

Emilian

Fagiolino

Bargnocla

Sandrone

Polonia

Arlecchino

Brighella

Pantaloon

Comical regional accent

Domestic scene

Trap

Imbroglio

Unveiling

Final song

Fagiolino in cerca di lavoro

Fagiolino is looking for a job

After a long silent prologue evoking the creation of the world and then the fertilisation of an ovum by a “ballet of spermatozoids”, the Poète (Poet) brings into focus the birth of two characters – Homme (Man) and then Femme (Woman). They both feel the “tragic desire to be made complete”. They make love and are thus made whole. But disease, infidelity, weapons and secrets appear with the birth of the city. Homme and Femme forget one another. A new concrete city takes over the old one, and no space is left for emotions. Homme finds himself in a crowd led by money, proprietorship and the market. Why waste your life for machines, Homme asks? Why give birth to children in a world that is filled with pain, Femme asks as an echo? Determined “not to accept the unacceptable”, “not to allow to not live” and to “organise the dream”, they meet again before fading into the growing darkness.

Rod puppet

Adults

France

Metz

Love

Sexuality

Daily life

Industry

Pollution

Madness

Lyrical

Philosophical tale

Erotic

Gabriel Cousin, Oratorio pour une vie, L'Avant-scène théâtre, n° 702, 1982 (cover page)

French

Poet

Love duet

Scene of copulation

Hands visible

Inserting poetry

Avista

Chorus

Oratorio pour une vie

Oratorio for a life

H. and F., an old working-class couple, dwell on their past while waiting to die in a hospice. Their dialogue develops in a suspended time and a dark atmosphere. Between recriminations, sadness and bitter memories, time is filled only with their quarrels and the few repetitive actions they perform every day in their room. Pierrot, their only son, who has not visited them for a long time, is a constant presence-absence in their daily life, one of their main sources of discussion.

Lemahieu Daniel

Paris

Avignon

Typed or electronic text with handwritten annotations

Old age

Couple

Domestic violence

Unemployment

Society

Worker

Daily

Taboo

Loneliness

Oppression

Sub-text

Homosexuality

Realist

Burlesque

Old man

Old woman

Invisible character

Argument

Awaiting

Silence

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Entre Chien et Loup

At twilight

In a former espadrille factory closed for years, abandoned objects, clothes and machines come to life to evoke the forty-five years of life of the factory and its workers. Former workers, former managers, and residents who lived by the rhythm of factory life recall with emotion the hours of hard work interspersed with joy, the strike pickets and union struggles, the resistance to successive factory closures and unemployment. Among them, Jacqueline makes her eight-year-old grandson Ulysse understand the place of the factory in her life. The factory, which was closed and left abandoned for a long time, was finally dismantled and demolished. The day the building is razed to the ground, the whole landscape of the city changes, leaving a gaping void for the inhabitants. The children of the school, worried and disoriented, wonder about this disappearance. The headmaster then asks them to draw the factory as they have always seen it or as they have been told about it, so that they will not forget it. Ulysse offers his drawing to his grandmother Jacqueline to console her: it shows the factory teeming with life, as she knew it. This is how this working-class memory is passed on from one generation to the next.

Object theatre

All audiences

Chaffin François

Oloron-Sainte-Marie

Factory

Workers’ memory

Industrial past

Remembrance

Machine

Testify

Pathetic

Des voix sortant des penderies de vestiaire

Voice

Ouvrière

Patron

Hand

Le dernier ouvrier de la dernière espadrille

Bird

Grandmother

Child

Metonymy (mode of characterisation)

Chorality

Ni bleu ni blouse

Neither blue nor blouse work clothes

A suitcase is moving on the baggage carousel of an airport, of a supermarket or of an industrial area. It is followed by several objects and goods. As the carousel speeds up, the actors handle the goods frenetically. Their struggle to follow the speed of the machine is reflected in their movements. 
The carousel slows down and the actors use their bare hands to mime imaginary objects - glasses being toasted, or a calabash being carried. Then they exchange various objects: a shotgun, a hammer, a book, an axe, … The carousel stops and the actors bring other objects on stage, which they manipulate or simply put on the floor: a small toy car, trophies, a mannequin’s arm, a fire extinguisher, a heater, a loudspeaker, an umbrella, … At the end of the show, boards with outlines representing members of the audience slowly come nearer to the proscenium until the final curtain comes down.