The count Franz Pocci comes back on Earth to see Munich, his good old city, once again. There, he encounters a series of characters that, each in their own way, prove the missteps of the Soviet Republic: the Demagogue–under the features of revolutionary Kurt Eisner; Death; the Jew and the Devil; then Kasperl and the Münchner Kindl (“Munich child”, figure inspired by the coat of arms of the city). At the end, a young war invalid arrives and gathers around him university students, workers: an exhilarated crowd, who, fulfilling the count’s wish, begins to awaken “the ancient force of the German people” (“die alte deutsche Volkeskraft”).

Adults

Pocci Ernst

Germany

Landshut

Printed

Bavaria

Revolution

People and history

Revenant

Tramway

Communism

Conservatism

Red flag

Faust

Anti-Semitism

Catholicism

Money

Modernity

Politics

Spartacists

Nationalism

Polemical

Satirical

German

Ein Puppenspiel aus der Nachkriegszeit

Franz von Pocci

Demagogue

Death

Devil

Kasperl

Münchner Kindl

War invalid

Blacksmith

Student

People

Apparition

Worker

Instrumental tune

Off-stage voice

Prologue

Light effects

Philosophical dialogue

Caricature

Thunderbolt

Defecation on stage

Brawl

Versified passages

Word for another

Parody of formal language

Nachtschatten

Night shadows

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.

Nachtschatten

Ein Puppenspiel aus der Nachkriegszeit

Der Schmied von Jüterbock und sein Geselle Kasper

Nach einer alten Erzählung für das Kasperltheater bearbeitet