Polichinelle no longer wants to play traditional puppet shows. He aspires to be modern and leaves his puppeteer to become a television star. The puppeteer, who is committed to tradition, grieves for Polichinelle and continues his shows with other puppets. Polichinelle is criticized by the viewers and causes trouble for the television program. He asks for the puppeteer’s help. Eventually, he comes back to him.

Glove-puppet

Video footage

Adults

France

Montpellier

Printed

Modernity

Tradition

Rupture

Television

Whim

Stardom

Comical

Humorous

Satirical

Black comedy

Robert Destanque, Le Caprice de Polichinelle, 2003.

French

Polichinelle

Puppeteer

Landlord

Constable

Colombine

Arlecchino

Pierrot

Announcer

Television presenter (woman)

Speakerine

Voice

Address to the public

Dialogue between actor and puppet

Talking on the phone

Monologue

Screen on stage

Throws

Song

Word warping

Le Caprice de Polichinelle

Polichinelle's Whim

A French journalist – François – is in a country at war to work on a report. He is welcomed by Malik – the leader of one of the camps, a collector of weapons and a fan of the Western consumer society and of the soap opera Santa Barbara. François also meets a sculptor monk, who happily guards the “cemetery of idiots”, and Marcel, a blind professor who philosophises about the fall of communism and the moral misery of humanity. François shows more and more aversion to the trade of journalism, which forces him to seek for the most gruesome news, and aversion also to humanity as a whole. The rats take an interest in this personal crisis: they are looking to communicate with him. Then the journalist meets the leader of the enemy camp, who happens to be Malik. For years, the militiamen have been fighting against themselves, playing the role of two enemy camps. The rats explain their inter-species cooperation project to François, the aim of which is to clean up the waste on Earth, and to purge humanity of its metaphysical stain. A world summit of good neighbourliness is organised in Luxembourg, to discuss the modalities of the alliance. But the rats are too visible and so the situation slowly deteriorates. The play ends with François’ burial in the “cemetery of idiots”.

Visniec Matéi

Paris

Avignon

Capitalism

TV soap opera

Journalism

Cemetery

Communism

Socialism

Ecology

Waste

Globalization

Depollution

Censorship

Balkans

Grotesque

Tragic

Matéi Visniec, La Mémoire des serpillières (front cover)

Journalist

Militiaman

Sculptor monk

President

Le Ministre français des affaires étrangères

Minister

Architect

Macedonian

Russian

Clown

Soldier

Talking animal

Political allegory

Modular scenes

Scene fragment

Exchangeable characters

Masked characters

Procession

Chorus

Off-stage voice

Plot twist

La Mémoire des serpillères

The Memory of mops