As the city-state of Faleria is being besieged by the Roman Camillo, Erippo, a teacher, decides to betray his city and hand the children of the Falerian nobility to Camillo as hostages. To avoid being thought of as a traitor, he manages to make the children betray the city themselves by pretending that his daughter Cloridea has been abducted by Camillo and his son Quinzio. Cajetto, Cloridea’s brother and the children’s chosen King, is set on sending ambassadors to Camillo to save his sister. He explains his plan to his other sister, Tulliola, who worries about her lover Fabiello, the pupils’ Great Councillor. She manages to convince the latter to remain hidden; thus, Crispino and Grino are appointed ambassadors. Crispino refuses to betray Faleria and negotiate with the enemy; Cajetto challenges him to a duel. Agripina also fears for Fabiello, whom she is secretly in love with. Diana keeps Cajetto and Crispino from fighting and announces that everything is unfolding according to the gods’ design. Agripina asks Cajetto not to send her brother Crispino: as he agrees to her request, he declares his love to her and decides to send Fabiello instead, to the young girl’s utter despair. Tulliola rejoices at her brother and lover having been spared, but Agripina lets her know that Fabiello was appointed ambassador. Floruccio came to declare his love to Tulliola; to create a diversion, the latter asks him to fulfil the mission. Fabiello overhears the conversation and believes that Tulliola has betrayed him. He stops hiding and decides to fulfil her request: he will be the one to go. To warn her lover and offer herself as a hostage, Tulliola dresses in man’s clothes and goes to meet Camillo. When Grino, whom Fabiello sent scouting, tells her that he met a giant, Tulliola tries to divert his attention from the mission by pretending that she has been sent by Camillo, who wants to meet the Master rather than the pupils. While Erippo is being interviewed by Camillo, Floruccio spreads a rumour: Fabiello has betrayed the city to get rid of his rival. Crispino announces that Camillo is generous and has both refused to take children as hostages and reported their master as a traitor to the Falerian Senate. Fabiello and Tulliola are speaking; she convinces him of her love: the jealous Floruccio walks in on them as they are exchanging vows. Fabiello is wanted, and Cajetto throws him in jail. As Tulliola is trying to free him, the lovers are caught. Floruccio announces that the Falerian Senate is opening the gates of the city to Camillo—to thank him for his magnanimity. The children fear for Erippo, and Cajetto wants to avenge his father by punishing Tulliola and her lover. The stage transforms: Apollo appears and announces that Erippo will be forgiven. He orders the children to resume their studies. The play ends with three weddings.

String marionette

Not specified

Gori Antonio (aka Goanto Rinio)

Italy

Venice

Printed

Siege

School

Rivals

Treason

Hostage

Mock-heroic

Dramatic

Epic

Farcical

Il Cajetto, 1746 (title page)

Italian

Sister

Brother

Apollo

Diana

Chorus

Music

Children games

Foresight

Love rivalry

Duel scene

Monologue

Messenger

Cross-dressing

Hidden character

Arrest scene

Confinement

Final wedding

Avista

Deus ex machina

Apparition of a god

Il Cajetto

Jeannot, a child who has a third eye, is adopted by Clémence and Prudent. They take Jeannot to see a doctor who wants to perform surgery on him. Jeannot rebels and a temporary solution is found: his third eye will be blindfolded so that the child can get used to having two eyes and prepare for the future. For a week, Jeannot lives with his eye covered but becomes sick with melancholy. Clémence decides that he will go to school without covering his eye. On the first day, the other children are either surprised or scared, then they are impressed by Jeannot’s “supersonic” eye. Soon enough, they no longer pay attention to that eye, but they pay attention, rather, to what it makes him see. Jeannot contradicts the schoolteacher regarding Romeo and Juliet, and he is chased out of the classroom. Mariette, a classmate, tells him that she shares his point of view. The head of school tells Clémence and Prudent that their son has been expelled for a week. Mariette pays a visit to Jeannot who is stuck in the house, and she reveals to him that she also has a third eye. They dance together until they are interrupted by the arrival of Mariette’s parents. When Jeannot goes back to school, a student mocks him. Mariette defends Jeannot by showing her third eye to everybody in the classroom, which terrifies the schoolteacher, who thinks there is an epidemic. Some parents take legal action and sue for voluntarily contaminating other children. The judge, who is understanding, thinks that Jeannot can see the colour of the human soul thanks to his third eye. Jeannot asks to become an emancipated minor in order to leave on his own, without his parents. His request having been accepted, Jeannot leaves, although it is difficult to accept for Clémence and Mariette. The narrator reveals herself to be Mariette, who has grown old: it is the day of her birthday and she wishes to see Jeannot again more than anything.

France

Orphan

Convent

Adoption

Surgery

Vision

Childhood

Discrimination

Expulsion

Judgment

Separation

Birthday

Shakespeare

Satirical

Fantasy

French

Narrator

Child

Father

Mother

Doctor

Teacher

Director

Crowd

Judge

Light effects

Dance

Classroom scene

Night scene

Court scene

Jeannot trois yeux

Three-Eyed Jeannot

In a country at war, a child soldier has managed to escape a military camp. She now goes to school. As she speaks with her teacher, Ismé’s past comes back to her in flashback. We learn about her past as a girl soldier, as well as the past of the children she fought with – more particularly that of Menka, who, after having been raped and having lost her first child, asked Ismé to take care of her second child.

Giant marionette

Saint-Christoly de Blaye

Blaye

Child soldier

Rape

Religion

Motherhood

Birth

Teenager

Baby

Compartmented stage

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Off-stage voice

Address to the public

Childbirth on stage

Ismé, l'enfant-soldat

Ismé, the child-soldier

Pasqual, a schoolteacher from the village, teaches the cleaning lady Aldonza how to read. They read from Don Quixote and play out several chapters using everyday objects they find around them.

Actor and puppet

Shadow theatre

Object theatre

Young audiences

Spain

Cullera

Valencia

Electronic text

Adventure

Professor

Literacy class

Reading

Didactic

Parodistic

A scene from Puri Fariza and Pol Paul's show Les lettres de Quichotte (Quixote's letters)