While fishing in a lake despite the prohibition, Casperl catches a crawfish, which tells him its story: it is actually called Zimbimbimperl and was transformed into a crawfish by her father, the magician Crocodilus, after a violent argument with her mother, the Egyptian fairy Persea. Persea travels the world to find her daughter, when she meets Casperl who informs her of Zimbimbimperl's fate. The gods of Egypt return her daughter to her, but demand that she sacrifices Casperl to them in return. In the meantime, Crocodilus has been captured and sold in a menagerie. But he manages to escape and takes refuge in the lake, surprising the reunion of mother and daughter. He wants to devour them, but Casperl intervenes and knocks him out. Crocodilus is calmed by the blow to the head. He has barely reconciled with his family when the owner of the Löwenmajer menagerie comes to claim him for his circus. Casperl kills him and declares the sacrifice to the gods complete. The play ends with a grand finale and an apotheosis of 'Casperl the Wise'.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Rail transport

Inflation

Fishing

Waste

Scatology

Egypt

Lost child

Menagerie

Magic

Forgiveness

Freemasonry

Oriental wisdom

Fantasy

Farcical

Parodistic

Satirical

German

Oder der Verzauberte Krebs

Fairy

Magician

Kasperl

Madame Kasperl

Miller

Tamer

Fish

Monologue

Talking animal

Brawl

Parody of formal language

Instrumental tune

Address to the public

Chorus

Metatheatre

Off-stage voices

Thunderbolt

Metamorphosis

Board

Transforming scenery

Crocodilus und Persea

Crocodilus and Persea

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”.

Adults

Visniec Matéi

France

Paris

Avignon

Television

Capitalism

TV soap opera

Journalism

Cemetery

Communism

Socialism

Ecology

Globalization

Depollution

Censorship

Balkans

Grotesque

Tragic

Matéi Visniec, La Mémoire des serpillières (front cover)

French

Journalist

Militiaman

Sculptor monk

President

Le Ministre français des affaires étrangères

Minister

Architect

Macedonian

Russian

Clown

Soldier

Political allegory

Modular scenes

Scene fragment

Exchangeable characters

Masked characters

Procession

Plot twist

Throws

La Mémoire des serpillères

The Memory of mops