An effusive poet looking for meaning in his life, goes into the forest. He has contradictory feelings and awaits a sign from a superior force. All of a sudden, an old woman apprears. She is almost deaf and their communication hilariously fails. The old woman leaves and the poet, still looking for a sign, announces several adventures often staged by the puppet theatre, such as Faust or Genoveva.

Not specified

Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August

Austria

Vienna

Printed

Poetry

Emotions

Forest

Bird

Animal

Nature

Deafness

Incomprehension

Cuckoo

Kaspar Hauser

Genevieve of Brabant

Faust

Lyrical

Comical

German

Der Dichter am Kreuzweg als Vorspiel für ein Puppentheater

Poet

Old woman

Prologue

Monologue

Dialogue of the deaf

Comic Equivocation

Address to the public

Metatheatre

Dialect

Vorspiel für ein Puppentheater

Prelude for a Puppet Show

The poet meets Kasperl in the street. He proposes to him to attend his puppet theatre, leaving him alone in front of the puppet booth. The first character to emerge is Hanswurst, but he fails to amuse Kasperl, who kills him by hitting him with a stick. Next, an allegory portraying Art enters the stage and offers him fruits. Kasperl does not find them to his liking and spills the garbage can on the poor woman's head. Finally, Death comes for him, and Kasperl knocks his head off with a stick. The furious poet returns to chastise him, but Kasperl has had enough and beats him to death.

Glove-puppet

Blümel Otto

Germany

Munich

Beer

Gluttony

Bavaria

Radish

Sausage

Beauty

Symbolism

George, Stefan Anton

Burlesque

Parodistic

Kasperl

Hanswurst

Arts

Death

Versified passages

Comical regional accent

Parody of formal language

Song

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Blow-with-a-stick

Murder on stage

Chorus

Allegory

Der Dichter

The poet

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.

Actor and puppet

Cagnard Jean

France

Cannes

Shoah

Loss

Concentration camp

Lightness

Change of age of the characters

Historical event

Pathetic

French

Petite-fille

Father

Mother

Grand-mère

Transforming scenery

Change of size on sight

Active stage directions

Board

Les Gens légers

Th light people

The puppeteer is about to tell a true story, the story of Lumi and Ginco, two young migrants from Albania. Their friend Vassillaq was supposed to play the role of the narrator, but as he did not show up, the puppeteer will do it for him. The young girl Lumi lives in Albania with her brother Bato and their grandmother. Their parents have lived in Venice-Mestre, Italy for eight years. One day the two siblings are finally able to join their parents: a wealthy cousin who lives in Canada has asked for Lumi's hand in marriage, and Bregan, Lumi's father, has accepted. Lumi and Bato embark on the perilous sea journey and finally arrive in Venice-Mestre. Another young Albanian, Ginco, has recently arrived at the site where Bregan works. He has no papers, but he is helped by Bregan and Vassillaq, another Albanian migrant with a passion for illegal car racing. As soon as they meet, Ginco and Lumi fall madly in love, but when Bregan finds out, he is furious: he wants to marry Lumi to her rich cousin. The day of the official engagement arrives, but Lumi is disgusted by her fat and pompous cousin. To punish her, her father sends her to live with her aunt, but Lumi continues to see Ginco and becomes pregnant. It is finally thanks to the intervention of the aunt that Bregan is convinced to allow the two young lovers to marry. The wedding finally takes place, but Vassillaq, who was supposed to be the groom's best man, is not there: he died the day before, while participating in one of his illegal races. That's why the puppeteer had to assume the role of narrator...

Vorspiel für ein Puppentheater

Der Dichter

Les Gens légers

Lumi dall'alto

Corse clandestine in città