A sick man has visions; under the watchful and worried eye of his chambermaid, he talks to himself and believes that he is seeing a woman and a masked ball. A woman dozing in her living room has a fever dream in which she sees the man she has loved. Her daughter, who is looking after her, struggles to bring her back to her senses.

Shadow theatre

Not specified

Bernus Alexander von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Spiritual union

Love

Vision

Separation

Past happiness

Fever

Dream

Lyrical

Melodramatic

Dora Polster and Doris Wimmer, flat figures and scenery for the first scene of Vormitternacht.

German

Schattenspiel der Seele

Sick person

Home-nurse

Daughter

Duplication

Apparition

Vormitternacht

Before midnight

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.