Pierrot is harassing his rich neighbour Mrs Trifouillon to get her to marry him. He locks her out of her house, then hides in her wardrobe. He beats her, breaks her dishes, throws her furniture in the street and deprives her of food and rest to make her give in. They fight, then she goes out to find a gendarme. When the gendarme arrives, Pierrot mistakes him for Mrs Trifouillon and pretends to marry him. Then Pierrot beats the Gendarme and throws him out. He finds Mrs Trifouillon's piggy bank, but she manages to take it back. Under threat, she agrees to marry Pierrot, who beats her to the rhythm of a wedding song that she is forced to hum while dancing.

Glove-puppet

Animated object

All audiences

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Printed

Silver wedding

Harassment

Cipidity

Chase

Piggy bank

Blackmail

Forced marriage

Violence

Threat

Battered woman

Comical

Farcical

French

Pierrot

Gendarme

Monologue

Misunderstanding

Blow-with-a-stick

Song

Beating with a broom

Hidden character

Ambush

Off-stage voices

Lazzi

Stone throwing

Aside

Headbutt

Throwing objects

Liquid spray

Final song

Running gag

Le Mariage de raison

The Marriage of reason

Casper is accused by a farmer of stealing his hay and the cart and cow that went with it. He tries to bargain over the compensation and settles the matter with a stick. In court, he insults the judge and beats the policeman. The peasant asks for him to be hanged, but Casper finds out and hangs him instead. Then he beats the policeman again. The judge wants him tortured and executed, but Casper beats him to death.

Young audiences

Germany

Sonneberg

Justice

Theft

Retribution

Punishment

Gallows

Torture

Police

Jail

Court

Prosecution

Assassination

Embezzlement

Silliness

Wickedness

Insubordination

Ironic

German

Kasperl

Judge

Policeman

Peasant

Address to the public

Versified passages

Flying machine

Parodic trial

Stichomythia

Foul language register

Comic Equivocation

Hanging scene

Murder on stage

Epilogue

Casper soll ins Gefängnis kommen

Casper must go to jail

Casper goes to the magic factory to learn magic tricks. The magician shows him some, but Casper is so crude that the magician soon doesn't know what to say, whereupon Casper calls him a donkey. They fight, one with his stick and the other with his broom. Casper defeats the magician. A policeman comes to arrest him, but Casper knocks him out and hangs him on the gallows. His wife blames him, they argue and fight.

Magic

Triviality

Vulgarity

Rebellion

Household

Couple

Stick

Broom

Magician

Word for another

Brawl

Domestic scene

Casper will Zauberer werden

Casper wants to become a magician

After a prologue in which Casper announces, among other things, that he is going to cut off the ears of children who are not well-behaved, the performance begins. Casper announces that, out of boredom, he wants to become a soldier. He shows his insubordination towards the non-commissioned officer who undertakes to train him by beating him with sticks. The non-commissioned officer sends him to the devil, who arrives: Casper kills him. He returns to his wife, announcing that he will be a general. She hits him with a broom, takes his stick back and they fight.

Soldier

Army

Military

Spousal abuse

General

Satirical

Madame Kasperl

Non-commissioned officer

Devil

Prologue

Devil's apparition

Casper will Soldat werden

Casper wants to become a soldier

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

Love

Drama

Discrimination

Death

Loneliness

Revenge

Circus

Domination

Murder

Allegory

Dramatic

Grotesque

Catalan

Obra per a un actor i titelles

Clown

Trapeze artist

Accordionist

Edith Piaf

Waiter

Spider

Jazz Band

Billie Holiday

Tamer

Carlos Gardel

Guitarist

Danseur

Juggler

Le père

Harald Paulsen

Général

Announcer

Metatheatre

Projections

El circ de la fosca

Le cirque des ténèbres

After a prologue where Pulcinella introduces the play and the dog sings a song, Teresina is attacked by a man in the street. The Moon appears to Teresina and calls her to come in a bid to protect her. Pulcinella looks for his beloved but the Moon prevents him from approaching. Pulcinella disguises himself as a woman, he is attacked by the same man as Teresina, and is then pursued by Death disguised as a policeman who wants to tire him out with domestic chores. Pulcinella flies off to the Moon and persuades Teresina to come back with him. Back on Earth, the two lovers take revenge on their attacker, who turns out to be a child calling out to his mother for help, and they eat a dish of spaghetti.