The poet meets Kasperl in the street. He proposes to him to attend his puppet theatre, leaving him alone in front of the puppet booth. The first character to emerge is Hanswurst, but he fails to amuse Kasperl, who kills him by hitting him with a stick. Next, an allegory portraying Art enters the stage and offers him fruits. Kasperl does not find them to his liking and spills the garbage can on the poor woman's head. Finally, Death comes for him, and Kasperl knocks his head off with a stick. The furious poet returns to chastise him, but Kasperl has had enough and beats him to death.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Blümel Otto

Germany

Munich

Printed

Poetry

Beer

Gluttony

Bavaria

Radish

Sausage

Beauty

Symbolism

George, Stefan Anton

Burlesque

Parodistic

German

Poet

Kasperl

Hanswurst

Arts

Death

Monologue

Versified passages

Comical regional accent

Parody of formal language

Talking at cross-purposes

Song

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Blow-with-a-stick

Murder on stage

Chorus

Allegory

Der Dichter

The poet

Saint Peter comes down to earth to grant three people of his choice the fulfillment of three wishes each. The first, a blacksmith, wishes that anyone who climbs into his pear tree to steal his pears can no longer come down without his permission, that people can only enter his house to disturb him through the keyhole, and that his bag fills with everything he wants to have in it. Peterle, the young boy who assists him at the forge, wishes to see his parents again in paradise, to have health, and to always be in a cheerful mood. Kasperl, in turn, goes to see Saint Peter and obtains that three wishes be granted to him, but asks to consult with his wife Gretl beforehand. However, they are unable to agree. Gretl finally blurts out that she would like sausages, which immediately appear on the table. Out of spite, Kasperl wishes that the sausages hang from his nose, but then he can't get them off, tries to shoot them off with a pistol, and accidentally kills his wife. A policeman arrives, whom he murders by suffocating him in the box where the policeman discovered Gretl's body. When he is about to throw the boxinto the water, the devil emerges, resurrects his wife, and beats him up. Now it is the blacksmith's time to die. Death, with a nail through his skull, comes to see him. The blacksmith asks him to pick a pear for him before following him. Death climbs into the tree and cannot come down until he has promised the blacksmith never to come back to see him again. However, he touches young Peterle, who had laughed at seeing him in such an awkward position, and he enters paradise. Then Death sends the devil to torment the blacksmith, but the latter, in the company of Kasperl, catches him in a bag as he passes through the keyhole and giveshim a severe beating. To avenge the devil, Death waits for Kasperl outside, but he manages to nail his skull to a tree and only releases him on the condition that he leaves him alone from now on too. After theFirst World War, however, neither the blacksmith nor Kasperl have any more taste for life. However, they are refused entry to both Heaven and Hell. The blacksmith then throws his bag over the wall of paradise and wishes to be there himself: he thus deceives Saint Peter. Kasperl has one last wish: he asks for theresurrection of the policeman, so as not to have his death on his conscience any longer. Entry to paradise is finally granted to him, but after a few years of purgatory: he will haveto return to his wife.

Rod and string marionette

String marionette

Rokos August Franz

Czechia

Cheb

Smithy

Devotion

Wishes

Saints

Catholicism

Happiness

Beatitude

Cold cuts

Knödel

Tavern

Heaven

Eternal punishment

Devil

Perlike

Police

Assassination

Feminicide

Hell

Child

Children--Death

Vanity

Inflation

Fantasy

Grotesque

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Saint Peter

Blacksmith

Mrs Kasperl

Angel

Policeman

Word for another

Domestic scene

Hidden corpse

Light effects

Apparition

Political allegory

Naive character deceived

Trap

Der Schmied von Jüterbock und sein Geselle Kasper

The Blacksmith of Jüterbock and his companion Kasper

Testafina and the aged Mrs Carlotta wish to enlist as volunteers in the hunt for the hyena, a beast that devours the young women of the village of San Giorgio. Giorgio Orsolano, the village delicatessen owner, immediately reveals himself to be the hyena: in his first appearance, like a good shopkeeper, he thinks about how many victims he needs during the San Giorgio fair to meet the demand for fresh sausages. After introducing himself, Giorgio Orsolano takes action and, at the end of the first act, drops the young Bianca and Colombina into the trapdoor connected to his workshop. The latter is engaged to Gianduja, who, together with Testafina, is the protagonist of the hunt for the hyena. It is Gianduja who, after buying sausages from Orsolano, finds a piece of a woman's finger (which he recognises from the nail polish) in his plate and realises who could be hiding behind the hyena. While Testafina calls everyone together, Gianduja breaks into Orsolano's shop, who was about to kill Colombina, and knocks him out with his stick. The mayor and the guards then take care of bringing the delicatessen owner-hyena to justice, to everyone's satisfaction.

Niemen Gualberto

Italy

Hyena

Criminal

Butcher

Blood

Cannibalism

Legend

Rewriting

Tradition

Italy (north)

Comical

Italian

Storia di una vecchia leggenda.

Capitano Carletto dei cacciatori volontari della iena

Testafina

Gianduja

Colombina

Colombine

Mayor

Guard

Dialect

Unveiling

La Iena di San Giorgio

King Victor Emmanuel II despairs to Garibaldi because the notorious criminal nicknamed ‘The Hyena of San Giorgio’ is stealing the limelight in the newspapers: more and more young girls are being kidnapped and then disappearing. When the Savoyard people (identified as ‘Cri de douleur’) beg him to free them from the Hyena, Victor Emmanuel takes his time and goes to San Giorgio because it seems that there is a butcher there, Barnaba Caccú, who makes the best sausages in all of Piedmont. Meanwhile, the nobleman Femorino wants to make sure that his fiancée, Angiolina, is a virgin, but when asked the question, Angiolina explodes in a fit of vulgarity and then reveals that she wants to marry a certain ‘Pensive Knight’ who secretly sends her love letters. Angiolina realises that her secret lover is the wanted criminal and, rejecting Femorino, agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, at Angiolina's house, her parents have invited Femorino to dinner: on the table is a sausage from the famous butcher of San Giorgio. Femorino finds a ring still attached to a piece of finger on his plate. No one suspects anything, however, and Femorino goes to the butcher's to return the ring. Meanwhile, in the butcher's hidden workshop, Caccù, with the help of his servant Crimea, has tied Angiolina to the table to turn her into sausage, but when he hears someone coming, he runs away. So when Femorino enters the workshop and finds Crimea with Angiolina tied up next to him, he immediately mistakes him for the Hyena. Meanwhile, in order to escape, Caccú has gone to the station disguised as a nun and expects the whole army to be sent after him. However, no one pays any attention to him. Outraged at not being recognised as the great criminal he is, Caccú confesses everything, even to King Victor Emmanuel II, but no one believes him. Left alone on stage, he shouts in vain, ‘It's me, I am the Hyena of San Giorgio.’

Gloved hand

Ceronetti Guido

Albano Laziale

Piedmont

Guilty

Evil

Tragic

Ironic

Tragedia per marionette

King

Vittorio Emmanuele II

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Prophet

Blind

Count

Doctor

Slave

Bourgeois

Franz Joseph I of Austria

Emperor

Maid

Vicar

Judge

Carabiniere

Stationmaster

Caricature

Disguise

Implausible

Hyperbolic action

Spectacular turn of events

The Hyena of Saint George

Armando, the narrator's alter ego, is unable to complete his project to build a watermill to irrigate his vegetable garden. His search for a solution leads him to meet the residents of his neighbourhood and recount their stories, which paint a picture of lives not yet alienated, neighbourhood celebrations and funerals, love and betrayal, everyday existence and dreams. In particular, on this day, the funeral of Stevanato is being celebrated, a former worker who, along with other retirees, had created a community workshop in the church basement to serve the neighbourhood, where anything and everything could be repaired. The engineering project designed to make the statue of St Joseph in the church cry will provide Armando with the solution to make his mill work: he was missing a helical gear mechanism, the famous “vite senza fine” (endless screw).

Der Dichter

Der Schmied von Jüterbock und sein Geselle Kasper

Nach einer alten Erzählung für das Kasperltheater bearbeitet

La Iena di San Giorgio

Storia di una vecchia leggenda.

La Iena di San Giorgio

Tragedia per marionette

Vite senza fine

Storie del secolo scorso