Fleeing his wife, Polichinelle steals a charlatan's cabriolet with Pierrot. First he wins the trust of the population with free advice, then he launches a subscription for a phantom financial company. When the shareholders demand their money, he sends them away with good words and blows, until the Public itself comes to threaten him directly. Mrs. Polichinelle offers to take care of the punishment. Terrified, Polichinelle flees into the forest. Abandoned by Pierrot, he walks to Hell. There, he tries to swindle Death and stands up to the Devil who, in desperation, goes looking for Mrs. Polichinelle. She brings her husband home firmly, with the approval of the audience.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Printed

Swindling

Hell

Marriage hell

Punishment

Forest

Public

Perseverance in Evil

Money

Capitalism

Bossy woman

Escape

Comical

Satirical

Farcical

Ironic

French

Le Charlatan

Charlatan

Polichinelle

Crook

Pierrot

Tenant

Lady

Peasant (man)

Cassandre

Cassandra

Shopkeeper

Colombine

Valet

Death

Devil

Intervention of the audience

Apparition of the Devil

Plot twist

Blow-with-a-stick

Apparition of Death

L'Homme au cabriolet

the man with a cabriolet

Lord Grey and John Bull are looking for a pretext to declare war on Germany, which is competing with England in the field of industrial development. The announcement of the murder of François-Ferdinand in Sarajevo, related by Kasperl, Grey’s servant, provides them with one such pretext, but they have to distort the event and make it seem as if Austria attacked Serbia. Grey and John Bull gather their allies from the Triple Entente, Prince Wodkasoff and Delcassé. They also join forces with the devil of lies. Kasperl lets a word of indignation slip, and he is thrown in prison. On the German side, Germania warns her husband Michel about the rapacity of their neighbours, when Kasperl, just escaped from prison, comes to warn them about the conspiracy planned by the countries of the Entente. The devil of lies tries to play Hans off against his parents, Germania and Michel, but he is struck with a stick. Wary of Italy, the Germans ally themselves with Josef (the Czech) and Janos (the Hungarian): the Triple Entente goes to war. In 1914-1915, the countries of the Entente fail to make progress against the enemy. Desperate, Grey seeks advice in hell, where King Edward VII plays cards with Pluto and Kitchener. Mammon, the devil of money, is thus sent to corrupt the countries who remained neutral. In Italy, he will even corrupt the poet D’Annunzio in order to make the people rise against Germany. In order to hasten Mammon’s return, Pluto puts the clock forward by one year: it is now 1916-1917, and Grey has been replaced by Lloyd George, a more energetic man. But Lloyd George also goes seek advice in hell. Mammon’s intervention was not sufficient to weaken Germany’s resistance. The devil of lies comes again on the stage, disguised as an angel of peace, to announce that the United States have entered the war. There is an uproar in hell. Pluto concludes the play with a reminder that he will always be the one to win, no matter what: either Germany is victorious, and he retrieves the souls of Grey, Lloyd George, Iswolski, Northcliff, Delcassé “and so on”, or England wins, and planet Earth becomes hell, meaning that Pluto could enjoy his retirement.

String marionette

Not specified

Fritz von Ostini (Friedrich von Ostini, aka Fritz von Ostini)

Germany

Munich

England

Propaganda

Conspiracy

Politics

Government

Treason

Italy

Gabriele d'Annunzio

Austria-Hungary

Bohemia (Czech republic)

United States of America

Russia

Trade

Industry

Imperialism

First World War

Title page of Grey &amp; Co, showing a caricature of Lord Grey

German

King Edward's unselige Erben

Kasperl

Black Man

Germania

Hans

Pluto

King Edward VII

Mammon

Moneylender

Fury

Ghost

Disguise

Allegory

Catastrophe

Political allegory

Splitting of the body

Play in verse

Personification

Pact with the devil

Caricature

Final intervention of the devil

Grey & Co

Invited to the international convention of handymen in Chicago, Dr. Haase builds a rocket to go there. Two gangsters witness the landing and try to steal the rocket, but Haase manages to flee and goes to see Turnip, the organiser of the convention; the convention is actually an excuse invented to attract the German scientist. Turnip looks for ways to corrupt Haase, his daughter Elvyra tries to seduce him, and the gangster Bill tries to kill him. With the help of the black servant Ann, Haase manages to flee with the rocket and, at the same time, saves Ann’s son Tom from a lynching.

Young audiences

Hoke Werner

Leipzig

Criminal

Rocket

Rivalry

Corruption

Science

German Democratic Republic (GDR)

America

Debauchery

Cabaret

Seduction

Racism

Front cover of the collection Drei Puppenspiele

Satirisches Puppenspiel für große Kinder

Gangster

Policeman

Fake death

Brawl

Trap

Running away

Macaronism

Aside

Bawdy equivocation

Die Amerikareise

The trip to America

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”.