Prince Abdal and his servant Kasper are lost in an enchanted forest. Kasper eats all the supplies while his master cannot satisfy his hunger. For three years, the prince has been searching for a woman who appeared to him in a dream. Then the king of the dwarfs and his subjects appear to the two men. The woman they are looking for is Princess Olanda, who is held captive in the forest by the magician Brandarbaran. They decide that Kasper will kill the magician, while Prince Abdal saves the princess. They are both given magical objects, and the dwarfs offer to help them. Kasper goes back to court using an invisibility cloak, and delivers fake news – that his master has died – then disappears. Olanda has been held captive for three years in Brandarbaran’s dungeon. Although she was treated like a princess in all respects by her maid Margaretha, she was raised by poor people. Brandarbaran tries to seduce her, but she resists him. Since this will cause him to look powerless, he decides to kill her. Prince Abdal and Kasper are at the foot of the dungeon, and about to fulfill their mission. Pimperle and Pitschkerle, two dwarfs, come to their aid and put the dragon to sleep. But Kasper does not succeed in killing the magician: in fact, the dwarfs did not wish him to, because Brandarbaran is actually Olanda’s father! Brandarbaran gives Kasper and Olanda their blessing. The maid Margaretha recognises Kasper: he is her husband, who ran away years before. They reconcile after quarrelling several times.

String marionette

Not specified

Germany

Saxony

Manuscript

Magic

Dwarf

Jail

Hunger

Love

Enchanted forest

Magic object

Dragon

Father-daughter incest

Dramatic

Comical

Fantasy

First page of Die Zwerge, c.1750.

German

King

Queen

Prince

Commanding officer

Master of ceremonies

Servant

Magician

Maid

King of the dwarfs

Dwarf (female)

Apparition

Stream of consciousness

Final wedding

Metamorphosis

Flying machine

Scene of recognition

Stormy scene

Fake news

Die Zwerge

The dwarfs

Martin, a woodcutter, frees a fairy from an oak tree she has been trapped in for 500 years. The fairy gives him a ring that allows him to fulfil three wishes. Martin confides the secret to his wife Margreth, who tells Casperl, their neighbour. While Martin goes to ask the mayor and the priest for advice, Margreth, in conversation with Casperl, takes it upon herself to wish for a plate of sausages, even though she has the ring on her finger: her wish is immediately fulfilled. Seeing this, Martin retrieves the ring and, in his anger, vows that his wife will have sausages hanging from her nose. The wish comes true and the two men are no longer able to amputate Margreth's sausage appendages: all they can do is wish them away, and the gift of the three wishes is wasted.

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Munich

Printed

Poverty

Spell

Ring

Secret

Beer

Hypocrisy

Sausage

Lust

Burlesque

Humorous

Grotesque

Fairy

Bûcheron

Kasperl

Song

Off-stage voice

Metatheatre

Die drei Wünsche

The three wishes

A drunk woman starts to dance. Her husband who is waiting for her while smoking a gigantic cigar grows mad. A fight breaks out when she gets home. An earl appears followed by a dozen white dwarves. During a funeral service, the earl kills a bike rider, shoots on the dwarves, and flees on the bike. He bursts into a circus and kills all the performing artists.

Depero Fortunato

Italy

Anacapri

États-Unis

Annandale-on-Hudson (New-York))

Printed outline

Drunkenness

Wealth

Autonomous limb

Animated object

Madness

Suicide

Household quarrel

Transparent body

Mutilation

Italian

Hyperbolic action

Visual distortion

Simultaneous scenes

Suicidi e omicidi acrobatici

Acrobatic suicides and homicides

A thief robs all the clients of a restaurant by hypnotising them. While driving a car, he empties three shop fronts and then electrocutes the police officers following him, all thanks to magnets. After a new burglary, he escapes thanks to a tram and a lift that gets him up into the sky.