The ghost of Hamlet’s father reveals to him that he was murdered by his own brother, who succeeded him on the throne of Denmark. He asks his son to avenge him. Hamlet feigns madness to pull the wool over his mother’s and uncle’s eyes, as he stages a puppet play that has them believe he knows about their crime. As he argues with his mother, he discovers that they are being spied on by the courtier Oldenholm and he throws him out the window, into the moats of the castle. Oldenholm’s daughter – Ophelia – believes that his father has died and loses her sanity: but Hamlet has secretly saved him from drowning. Ophelia reunites with her father and comes back to her senses. However, the king wants to dispose of his nephew by sending him to war against Napoleon, under Admiral Nelson’s commands. Hamlet finds out about this conspiracy. During the farewell dance organised for him, he has the king drink the poison that was meant for him. He then ascends the throne of Denmark and marries Ophelia. His uncle, who was saved at death’s door, is exiled to Greenland.

String marionette

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Schink Johann Friedrich

Germany

Ratzeburg

Printed

Philosophy

Idealism

Madness

Murder

Politics

Court life

Plot

Love

Commedia dell'arte

Shakespeare

Satirical

Parodistic

Burlesque

Illustration on the cover page of the 1800 edition.

German

Momus und sein Guckkasten

Ein Marionettenspiel

Hamlet

Guard

Captain

Queen

Courtier

Ophelia

Ghost

Puppeteer

Pantaloon

Colombine

Pierrot

Prince

Il Dottore (Commedia dell'arte)

Scapin

Polichinelle

Prologue

Address to the public

Sung scenes

Monologue

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Comic Equivocation

Allegory

Political allegory

Allusion to current literary events

Instrumental tune

Pantomime

Play in verse

Prinz Hamlet von Dännemark

Hamlet Prince of Danemark

Rosalinde, dressed as a male student, enters Doctor Faust’s home and gives him a book of magical spells. As a consequence, Faust believes he is making a deal with the devil, but he is in fact the victim of a trick orchestrated by the young woman, who conspired with Faust’s houseboy – Hans Wurst. When Satan comes back at midnight, he tells Faust that he has no intention of keeping his promises, and that the poor man has sold his soul for nothing. And yet, he grants him a final trial, which could save him from Hell: Faust must resist the gorgeous Helen of Troy. But he gives in the moment that she appears to him. Rosalinde then reveals that she was both the devil and the beautiful Helen: it is to her that he has devoted his body and soul. The play ends with two weddings, as Rosalinde’s servant, Lisette, is Hans Wurst’s sweetheart.

Augsburg

Scholar

Sorcery

Humour

Professor

Gluttony

Doctor

Sophism

Devil

Joke

Morality

Woman

Seduction

Comical

Title page of the play in Johann Scheible's Das Kloster (1847)

Faust

Hanswurst

Domestic servant

Student

Helen of Troy

Aside

Disguise

Cross-dressing

Word for another

Chorus

Pact with the devil

Misunderstanding

Scene of recognition

Final wedding

Final song

Johann Faust oder der gefoppte Doktor

Johann Faust or the duped doctor

A poet comes out of his bath to walk on a bridge and enjoy the sunset. A gardener walks past him and mentions the glorious life he gave up in order to cultivate flowers. A young man relates his day spent hunting alone. Then comes a stranger, and after him a girl who is listening to a traveling singer. Night has now fallen. A group of three people arrives on the bridge: a madman, his servant, and a doctor. The madman is a young nobleman who had a life of abundance before devoting himself to solitude and to roaming. He meditates on the illusion of all things while leaning on the bannister. He tries to throw himself in the water, but his comrades prevent him from doing so.

Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August

Austria

Bad Fusch

Bath

Evening

Landscape

Flowers

Loneliness

Glory

Misery

Hunting

Dream

River

Childhood

Night

Destiny

Melancholy

Illusion

Suicide

Lyrical

Oder die Glücklichen

Gardener

Poet

Street singer

Fool

Physician

Teichoscopy

Light effects

Song

Off-stage voice

Das kleine Welttheater

The small theatre of the world

The old Ablamore, father of seven daughters, of whom only one, Astolaine, is still alive, wants to make the young Greek slave Alladine his mistress. Alladine and Palomides, Astolaine's fiancé, fall in love with each other. While Astolaine resigns herself to giving Palomides her freedom, Ablamore sinks into jealousy. Alladine and Palomides, shackled and blindfolded, are locked in an underground cave. They manage to free themselves from their bonds and are delighted by the beauty of the cave and an underground lake. Astolaine and the six sisters of Palomides, who have come to rescue them, let in the light of day which reveals the true aspect of the cave. The two lovers become frightened and fall into the lake. After being pulled out of the water, they are placed in two separate chambers and, while talking without seeing each other, they both die.

Maeterlinck Maurice

Belgium

Ghent

France

Lyon

Jealousy

Fiancé

Enclosure

Cave

Underground lake

Vision

Death

Light

Depreciation

Illness

Dramatic

Tragic

French

Sister

Alladine et Palomides

Alladine and Palomides

Arlecchino, on horseback, and Facanapa, on a donkey, are strolling, when they meet a man wearing a hairshirt. Arlecchino thinks that he is a wizard and his enemy, and challenges him. The man tells him that, if he wins, Arlecchino will have to follow him everywhere. Arlecchino answers that if he is the one to win, the man will have to assist the noble Colombina, his beloved. Arlecchino loses the duel, and is forced to follow the man to a castle where he is locked up with Facanapa. The owner explains that he is not a wizard but the marquis Francesco Del Ponte, back from a pilgrimage. He assures that Arlecchino is not a knight but the servant Arlecchino Battocchio, and that Facanapa is a peasant, and he tells them to stop their madness. Arlecchino is sad, angry and hungry, but the marquis says that he will not give them food until they stop fooling around. Later, Arlecchino meets the castle elderly maid who recognises him. She had met him when he was a child, but he does not believe that. After fighting over a piece of bread, Arlecchino and Facanapa manage to escape and reach the woods. There, they fight against imaginary enemies made up by Arlecchino’s hallucinations. Arlecchino fiercely fights a herd of pigs, wounding and killing them. Guards arrive and throw themselves at him. Arlecchino, who thinks he has been turned into a donkey, starts braying. Facanapa concludes, and says that a servant can become both a knight and a donkey.

All audiences

Italy

Wandering

Knight

Arlecchino cavaliere errante e Facanapa suo scudiere (circa 1900)

Italian

Arlecchino

Facanapa

Horseman

Sancho Panza

Marquis

Maid

Guardian

Duel scene

Hallucination

Confinement

Blow-with-a-stick

Fight with an animal

Scene of madness

Arlecchino cavaliere errante e Facanapa suo scudiere

Harlequin the wandering knight and Facanapa his horseman

Two inhabitants from Gotham run into each other on a bridge. The first inhabitant asks the second one where he is going and what he is about to do. The second one answers that he is going to Gotham, and the first one adds that he is headed to Nottingham to buy sheep. After many misunderstandings, the second citizen states that he will forbid the first one to cross the bridge upon his return. They both fight with wooden sticks without actually hitting each other, and they raise a cloud of dust. A third inhabitant arrives with a donkey that carries sacks of wheat grains. He makes fun of them, and asks them to empty the sacks into the river to explain that their heads are as empty as these bags.

Craig Edward Gordon

Rapallo

Great Britain

London

Peasant

Absurd

English

A Blithering Interlude for Burattini

Dialogue of the deaf

Archaic speech

Comedy of language

Ridiculous fight

The Three Men of Gotham

Les Trois Hommes de Gotham

After a long silent prologue evoking the creation of the world and then the fertilisation of an ovum by a “ballet of spermatozoids”, the Poète (Poet) brings into focus the birth of two characters – Homme (Man) and then Femme (Woman). They both feel the “tragic desire to be made complete”. They make love and are thus made whole. But disease, infidelity, weapons and secrets appear with the birth of the city. Homme and Femme forget one another. A new concrete city takes over the old one, and no space is left for emotions. Homme finds himself in a crowd led by money, proprietorship and the market. Why waste your life for machines, Homme asks? Why give birth to children in a world that is filled with pain, Femme asks as an echo? Determined “not to accept the unacceptable”, “not to allow to not live” and to “organise the dream”, they meet again before fading into the growing darkness.

Rod puppet

Adults

Metz

Sexuality

Labour

Daily life

Industry

Pollution

Philosophical tale

Erotic

Gabriel Cousin, Oratorio pour une vie, L'Avant-scène théâtre, n° 702, 1982 (cover page)

Love duet

Scene of copulation

Hands visible

Inserting poetry

Avista

Oratorio pour une vie

Oratorio for a life

Botius – a philosopher – lives a happy life. He succumbs to despair and madness when his partner Opina leaves him for another man. He is then attacked by hooligans, who pull his eyes out. Police offices come to his aid, but they lead him near his mother’s skeleton. He falls into a sort of grave and does not manage to escape. He tries to find reassurance in reminding himself that he still has the ability to think. Hooligans urinate on him, and he catches a glimpse of Opina’s legs, which are dangling. A rope appears. He tries to haul himself out of the hole, but the rope only leads to a void. His head is cut in half and his brain explodes and spills all over the floor. His lookalike appears, then so does Opina. She kisses the lookalike and leaves with him. Hooligans are being carried on crosses, on which they are crucified upside down. Their wails torment Botius. He comes closer to them and realizes that they are dead. A cart driver and a horse arrive. Botius calls out to the cart driver so that he may pick up his brain. The horse tears off one of the hooligans’ head and holds it by the hair between its teeth. They leave. Botius meets a pregnant woman and an old man. The couple begins to make love. A child walks up tentatively. The horse comes back and devours the child. Botius asks it to eat him too, to put an end to his misery, but the horse goes away. He concludes that his soul must be difficult to digest.

Barker Howard

Brighton

All He Fears