A Stranger discovers the body of a drowned young girl. Accompanied by an Old Man, he observes by a lighted window the quiet life of the family to which he has to tell the news to as as the procession carrying the drowned girl's body is getting closer.

Not specified

Maeterlinck Maurice

Belgium

Ghent

France

Paris

Printed

Death

Drowning

Announcement

Silence

Procession

Family

Pity

Check up on

Short story

Dramatic

Tragic

French

Vieillard

Foreigner

Petite-fille

Peasant

Crowd

Le père

Mère

Fille

Child

Offstage

Teichoscopy

Silent play

Intérieur

Interior

The old Ablamore, father of seven daughters, of whom only one, Astolaine, is still alive, wants to make the young Greek slave Alladine his mistress. Alladine and Palomides, Astolaine's fiancé, fall in love with each other. While Astolaine resigns herself to giving Palomides her freedom, Ablamore sinks into jealousy. Alladine and Palomides, shackled and blindfolded, are locked in an underground cave. They manage to free themselves from their bonds and are delighted by the beauty of the cave and an underground lake. Astolaine and the six sisters of Palomides, who have come to rescue them, let in the light of day which reveals the true aspect of the cave. The two lovers become frightened and fall into the lake. After being pulled out of the water, they are placed in two separate chambers and, while talking without seeing each other, they both die.

Lyon

Love

Jealousy

Fiancé

Madness

Enclosure

Cave

Underground lake

Vision

Light

Depreciation

Illness

Sister

Physician

Monologue

Off-stage voices

Song

Alladine et Palomides

Alladine and Palomides

Martin is secretly in love with the beautiful Eleonora Lambriani, a mysterious dancer with a legendary reputation. However, he has already sworn his love to Sophie. When Martin prepares to leave in order to offer his life and his money to Eleonora, his cousin Cassian arrives at his house. Initially inconsolable because of the departure of her lover, Sophie changes from the virtuous girl to the woman expressing her desire for Cassian, then she elopes with him by jumping out of the window. Martin dies by the hand of Cassian, poor as a church mouse, as he has lost all his money in a dice game against Cassian.

Schnitzler Arthur

Austria

Vienna

Germany

Berlin

Secret love

Unexpected visit

Plot twist

Unfaithfulness

Dice game

Journey

Loyalty in love

Sadness

Nostalgia

Seduction

Encounter

Temptation

Confession

Lust

Poverty

Luck

Deception

Battle story

Duel

Suicide attempt

Femme fatale

Comical

Burlesque

Parodistic

German

Der tapfere Kassian

Puppenspiel in einem Akt

Valet

Domestic scene

Argument

Love story

Deceived naivety

Der tapfere Cassian

The brave Cassian

In a tavern, Virgili presents four short stories that take place in a circus and have the themes of solitude, failure and death in common. A clown, in love with a trapeze artist, kills her partner; a trainer treats his wife as if she were a circus animal and ends up killing her; a young juggler kills his father with the needles he uses to inject cocaine; a soldier, a musician in the circus band who raped girls and killed children during the war, ends up shot as a deserter.

String marionette

Adults

Alapont Pasqual

Spain

Valencia

Drama

Discrimination

Couple

Loneliness

Revenge

Violence

Spousal abuse

Circus

Domination

Murder

Allegory

Grotesque

Catalan

Obra per a un actor i titelles

Clown

Trapeze artist

Accordionist

Edith Piaf

Serveur

Spider

Jazz Band

Billie Holiday

Tamer

Carlos Gardel

Guitarist

Danseur

Juggler

Soldier

Harald Paulsen

Général

Announcer

Metatheatre

Projections

Murder on stage

El circ de la fosca

Le cirque des ténèbres

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.

Actor and puppet

Shadow theatre

Automaton

Sirera Rodolf

Rationalism

Science

Religion

Superstition

Adventure

Alchemy

Symbolic journey

Hypnotism

Spiritisme

Double

Divination

Supernatural

Imbroglio

Hanging

Fantastic

Melodramatic

Philosophical tale

Obra per a titelles i actors

Savant

Alchemist

Doctor

Franz-Anton Mesmer

Homes I Dones Espectadors de la sessió d'hipnotisme

Coachman

Cavalier

Lady

Innkeeper

Servante

Hangman

Corpse snatcher

Prison guard

Priest

Voisine

Funfair Traveller

Bookseller

Serviteur

Carpenter

Executioner

Officer

Narrator

Magic act

Projected shadows

Surprise effect

Hypnosis session

Masked characters

Sword fight

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Prolepsis (Flash-forward)

La mirada de l'alquimista

The alchemist's gaze

Through various scenes that follow one another without necessarily being linked, The text evokes the deportation of Jews to the concentration camps through a poetic diversions. The common thread running through the entire play is the character of the little girl, about seven years old, who meets different characters, human or not: a Man who shrinks the sky, a Little Pile of Ashes, a Train, a Chimney. Each character appears as a metaphor charged with meaning, first and foremost the Little Pile of Ashes, which materializes in a macabre and at the same time "light" way the ashes of the victims burned in the ovens. At the end of the play, the little girl, who has lost both her innocence and her life force, also disappears, swallowed up by the little pile of ashes.