Faust leads a destitute life as a scholar, until he lay hands on a book of black magic. He then sells his soul to the devil Mefistofeles, in exchange for services. Demons also appear to Kasper, whom Faust’s famulus – Wagner – has recently hired. But Kasper adamantly refuses to sell himself to the devil. Mefistofeles takes Faust and Kasper to Parma to lead a loose life. After living in luxury for twelve years, Faust is abandoned by Wagner, who disapproves of his way of life. Faust repents, but eventually gives in to carnal temptation when Mefistofeles presents him the fair Helen, whom he knew in Ancient Greece. Everyone rejects Faust. Kasper, now a night watchman, finds him out in the street within curfew hours and wants to throw him behind bars. But Faust’s final hour has come, and he is taken away by demons.

String marionette

Not specified

Geisselbrecht Johann Georg

Germany

Printed

University

Scholar

Wittenberg

Philosopher's stone

Foreign languages

Laziness

Sorcery

Necromancy

Perlicke

Middle Ages

Crow

Pluto

Coffee

Penitence

Eroticism

Future punishment

Tragic

Burlesque

German

Comödie vom D. Faust ; Schauspiel von dem Doctor Faust

Oder : Der große Negromantist

Faust

Christoph Wagner

Kasperl

Mephistopheles

Devil

Auerhahn

Vizibuzli

Helen of Troy

Night watchman

Monologue

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Tragic irony

Song

Macaronism

Misunderstanding

Lazzi

Word for another

Thunderbolt

Apparition of the Devil

Word reiteration

Pact with the devil

Dream

Versified passages

Bawdy equivocation

Doctor Faust

Faust invokes Satan, who appears as Mephistopheles. Faust devotes himself to the devil in exchange for the accomplishment of his every wish. He also demands that demons be at the service of his servant, Hänneschen, who will henceforth have the spirits of Parlicko and Parlacko at his disposal. In an inn, Faust gets angry at a prying student and makes a fire appear in his glass of wine. After that, he asks Mephistopheles to take him and Hänneschen first to Mount Olympus and then to a beautiful garden. Only one unfulfilled desire remains for Faust: finding a wife. Hänneschen seizes this opportunity to ask Parlicko and Parlacko to bring him his beloved Bärbel so he can marry her. Mephistopheles brings Faust the beautiful Helena, but when he tries to kiss her, she changes into an evil creature. The room turns into an infernal cave, and Faust is doomed amidst the flames.

Single rod marionettes

Winters Johann Christoph

Cologne

Garden

Fear

Wedding

Lust

Fantastic

Title page of the play in the periodical Das Kloster, 1847

Eine Geschichte der Vorzeit

Hänneschen

Domestic servant

Student

Peasant

Innkeeper

Satan

Spirit

Doctor Faust is disillusioned with academic disciplines. He learns black magic and makes a deal with the devil Mephistopheles, promising him his soul if the latter accepts to serve him for twenty-four years. Faust’s new domestic servant, Casperle, also learns to summon demons, and engages the services of the devil Auerhahn. However, he refuses to sell his soul to him. During the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Parma, Faust makes the Ancient Testament appear before them and attempts to seduce the duchess. But he is pursued by her husband, the Inquisition and the outraged people, because Casperle has used his links with the devil to carry out miracles. Faust flees to Constantinople and Auerhahn brings Casperle to Mainz. The final act relates Faust’s damnation. He does penance, but he is doomed when Mephistopheles promises him the most beautiful woman in the world – Helen of Troy. Faust is carried off by demons, while Casperle, now a night watchman, takes his revenge on his wife at the end of the play, for the domestic violence she inflicted on him.

Simrock Karl

Bonn

Magic

Monkey

Mainz

Drink

Pigtail

Dragon

Seduction

Inquisition

Italy

Couch

Vanity

Repentance

Nightwatchman

Spousal abuse

Humorous

Dilemma

Off-stage voice

Comic Equivocation

Aside

Apparition

Pyrotechnics

Chase

Theatre within the theatre

Domestic scene

Dance

Doctor Johannes Faust

Don Juan has asked his servant Kasperl to sell his last shirt and coat, but Kasperl has spent the money from the sale on beers. He sends him to borrow money from his father, the knight Pantolfius. When Pantolfius refuses, Don Juan himself comes to ask him to comply, but in vain, and Kasperl kicks him in the nose. To find money, Kasperl then has the idea of summoning the devil, but when Don Juan wants to sell him his soul, he replies that it already belongs to him and takes it to hell.

Reinhardt Carl

Munich

Tralala

Excessive drinking

Drunkard

Drinking

Credit

Father

Money

Debt

Hits

Radirullala

Satirical

Parodistic

Grotesque

Farcical

Don Juan

Pantolfius

Final intervention of the devil

Spectacular turn of events

Kasperl und Don Juan

Kasperl and Don Juan

The devil steals the box in which Kasperl, in the previous play (<a href="https://puppetplays.eu/en/oeuvres/5777/frau-kasperl-und-die-köchin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frau Kasperl und die Köchin</a>) had locked his wife, his lover and the night watchman. He replaces it with another box in which Kasperl almost gets his nose stuck when he comes to sniff if it does not contain sausages. Instead, the devil emerges and wants to take him away. But Kasperl has fun making him disappear and reappear with the magic formula "Parlucke! Parlicke" until the devil gets dizzy and cries for mercy. He insists that Kasperl follow him, who finally announces that he is going to draw his will and returns with a club, with which he kills the devil. He seals him up in the box and goes to throw it in the fire.

Glove-puppet

Woman

Eating

Hunger

Stick

Grandparents

Comical

Role reversal

Running gag

Blow-with-a-stick

Hidden corpse

Kasperl und der Teufel

Kasperl and the Devil

Unable to sleep, Casperl complains about his lot in life and even says that he is ready to appeal to the spirits, following the example of Faust, when a headless ghost appears in front of him. The ghost asks him to save him from hell by performing the necessary rites at midnight at the gallows. In exchange, Casperl will get hold of the treasure that the ghost buried at this location when he was still a bandit. The next day, Casperl, who has forgotten the ritual words, asks the witch Moosmayerin to help him: she gives him Holofernes’ magical belt. In the next scene, Casperl has become rich, but he considers that the money shouldn’t be used to pay his debts and he sends his creditors away with injurious words. When a police officer comes to arrest him, he manages to lock the police officer inside his house and goes to the tavern. When he returns to his place, he discovers that the police officer has hung himself by accident with the rope with which he tried to slip away. Casperl is thrown in prison, but he is freed by the ghost, who tells him that the police officer has not died and that he has resumed his work.

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Beer

Night

Melancholy

Spirits

Robber

Scaffold

People and history

Market

Wealth

Scatology

Tavern

Romanticism

Fantasy

Schicksalsdrama in vier Aufzügen

Madame Kasperl

Tailor

Police officer

Shoemaker

Chimney sweeper

Ghost

Metatheatre

Chorus

Animated natural element

Disguise

Parody of formal language

Hanging scene

Transforming scenery

Board

Instrumental tune

Casperl wird reich

Casperl gets rich

Don Juan overhears a conversation between Amarillis and Don Philippo, who agree to a romantic rendezvous. He sets out to kidnap Amarillis, when her father, Don Pietro, appears. Don Juan stabs him, and then robs his relative Don Alvaro Pantolfius, before fleeing Seville with his servant Schängche. The latter, tormented by a devil, is carried into the air on a giant sausage. After a shipwreck in which Schängche is swallowed and then spat out by a whale, the two fugitives wander through the woods. They meet a hermit, who, under threat, lends Don Juan a suit to disguise himself. Lost in the forest, Amarillis meets Schängche's fiancée, the innkeeper Greta de la Rosa. Don Juan finds the two women and tries to seduce them, but Don Philippo finds him in the meantime. Don Juan murders him. Schängche still has to fight a monster they meet in the forest. They arrive by chance at Greta's inn, where Don Juan seduces the bride of a wedding that has just taken place. At the cemetery, he invites the statue of Don Pietro to supper, who accepts his invitation. But Don Juan refuses to repent and is damned. Schängche, on the other hand, marries Greta.