While fishing in a lake despite the prohibition, Casperl catches a crawfish, which tells him its story: it is actually called Zimbimbimperl and was transformed into a crawfish by her father, the magician Crocodilus, after a violent argument with her mother, the Egyptian fairy Persea. Persea travels the world to find her daughter, when she meets Casperl who informs her of Zimbimbimperl's fate. The gods of Egypt return her daughter to her, but demand that she sacrifices Casperl to them in return. In the meantime, Crocodilus has been captured and sold in a menagerie. But he manages to escape and takes refuge in the lake, surprising the reunion of mother and daughter. He wants to devour them, but Casperl intervenes and knocks him out. Crocodilus is calmed by the blow to the head. He has barely reconciled with his family when the owner of the Löwenmajer menagerie comes to claim him for his circus. Casperl kills him and declares the sacrifice to the gods complete. The play ends with a grand finale and an apotheosis of 'Casperl the Wise'.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Rail transport

Inflation

Fishing

Waste

Scatology

Egypt

Lost child

Menagerie

Magic

Forgiveness

Freemasonry

Oriental wisdom

Fantasy

Farcical

Parodistic

Satirical

German

Oder der Verzauberte Krebs

Fairy

Magician

Kasperl

Mrs Kasperl

Miller

Tamer

Fish

Monologue

Talking animal

Brawl

Parody of formal language

Instrumental tune

Address to the public

Chorus

Metatheatre

Off-stage voice

Thunderbolt

Metamorphosis

Board

Transforming scenery

Crocodilus und Persea

Crocodilus and Persea

Kasperl meets a communist with a red flag. The latter tries to win him over to his cause, but Kasperl, who at first thinks the communist is a bullfighter with a muleta, answers him on every point with a good-natured naivety: he thus manages to unmask the egoism of the other man, who, having run out of arguments, leaves, threatening Kasperl that he will be the first to be lynched at the next attempted putsch.

Not specified

Drexler Franz

Communism

Revolt

Revolution

Sharing

Flag

Bavaria

Debate

Socialism

Conservatism

Polemical

Communist

Word for another

Talking at cross-purposes

Dialect

Argument

Kasperl und der Kommunist

Kasperl and the communist

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.

Crocodilus und Persea

Oder der Verzauberte Krebs

Kasperl und der Kommunist

Der Schmied von Jüterbock und sein Geselle Kasper

Nach einer alten Erzählung für das Kasperltheater bearbeitet