Hanswurst is thrown out like trash from the stage of the Berlin theatre following the success of Voltaire’s tragedy Alzire. He is exiled to Salzbourg, where he lodges at Stoffel Knips’ house and seduces his host’s wife. Stoffel Knips catches them in the act and throws them out. Hanswurst’s distress is such that he tries to kill himself. But thunder strikes the branch on which he was hanging. Two Turks pass by the unconscious couple and take them aboard their felucca going to Turkey. During the trip, Madame Knips gives birth to two children – a boy and a girl – who grow extremely fast. In Turkey, Hanswurst is castrated to be made a eunuch in the Sultan’s seraglio. Madame Knips fell in the sea with her son during the trip, but she manages to swim to shore. She competes with her daughter for the Sultan’s favours; Hanswurst takes offence and makes a scene. He is banished by the Sultan as a result, and returns to Berlin, where he meets a prostitute. He recognizes one of the brothel’s clients as his own son, who also escaped drowning and became a pedant professor of philosophy. During a lecture he gives on the German almanac Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, published by Friedrich Christoph Nicolai, all the characters on stage die from atrocious diarrhoea.

Not specified

Schink Johann Friedrich

Germany

Berlin

Printed

Turkey

Sultan

Seraglio

Unfaithfulness

Prostitution

Suicide

Education

Literary criticism

Sturm und Drang

Genie

Adventure

Navigation

Human castration

Mutilation

Childbirth

Storm

Tempest

Scatology

Colic

Fart

Fornication

Triviality

Obscenity

Satirical

Anonymous illustration on the title page of Johann Friedrich Schink's collection Marionettentheater

German

Hanswurst

Madame Knips

Turk

Sailor

Daughter

Physician

Slave

Lady

Old woman

Prompter (theatre)

Scene of recognition

Bawdy equivocation

Splitting of the body

Prologue

Address to the public

Love story

Hanging scene

Play in verse

Epilogue

Unexpected turn of events

Brothel scene

Foul language register

Allusion to current literary events

Hanswurst von Salzburg mit dem hölzernen Gat

Hanswurst of Salzbourg with the wooden arse

Sylvia, a brothel keeper, freshens up in front of a mirror: she wants to take the place of her employees for the night. The pimp Dorante also decides to switch roles and to become the client of a prostitute. When seeing him, Sylvia invites him upstairs. They end up in a small room, both unaware of the other’s status. They begin their lewdness, and Sylvia is very creative. After experiencing mutual sexual pleasure, they realise that they have the same job. This increases their passion, and they think about opening a new brothel together.

Glove-puppet

Adults

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

France

Paris

Slang

Brothel

Erotisme

Erotic

Farcical

Comical

Félicien Rops, frontispiece for Le Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1864).

French

Pimp

Monologue

Aria

Misunderstanding

Scene of copulation

Situation comedy

Comedy of language

Les Jeux de l'amour et du bazar

The Games of Love and Mess

H. and F., an old working-class couple, dwell on their past while waiting to die in a hospice. Their dialogue develops in a suspended time and a dark atmosphere. Between recriminations, sadness and bitter memories, time is filled only with their quarrels and the few repetitive actions they perform every day in their room. Pierrot, their only son, who has not visited them for a long time, is a constant presence-absence in their daily life, one of their main sources of discussion.

Lemahieu Daniel

Avignon

Typed or electronic text with handwritten annotations

Old age

Couple

Domestic violence

Labour

Unemployment

Society

Worker

Daily

Taboo

Loneliness

Oppression

Sub-text

Homosexuality

Realist

Burlesque

Old man

Domestic scene

Invisible character

Argument

Awaiting

Silence

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Entre Chien et Loup

At twilight

In his theatre, Mimmo is both an actor and a puppet showman. He is the boss of all the characters and can play all the roles: he plays the Harpo, an 'oggre' (ogre). But when he meets Lili, a "fragile and seductive" little puppet, everything falls into chaos. He wants to hold her, manipulate her as he pleases, and even eat her, and swallow her. She wants to escape, be able to move on her own, or even become human. Little Kouki, "the puppet’s puppet", wants the same thing, but Harpo and Mimmo prevent them from escaping. The dolls' bodies are abused, forced and violently injured. However, Harpo is finally unable to eat little Lili, even though his hunger makes him scream in pain. The scary ogre has fallen in love. The theatre becomes the backdrop for a fierce and hopeless love story.

Bare hand

Shadow theatre

Bourg-en-Bresse

Electronic text

Ogre

Woman

Wrestling

Love

Impossible love

Doll

Gender-based violence

Violence

Death

Murder

Manipulation

Poetry

Prosthesis

Tale

Fairy play

Noise

Hits

L'Ogre et la poupée

Polichinelle

Guignol

Avista

Engulfment

Allegory

Building a puppet on sight

Chase

Fight

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Disappearance

Childbirth on stage

Active stage directions

Shape shifting

Change of size on sight

Grammelot

Repetition of a word

L'Oggre et la poupée

The ogre and the doll

The puppeteer is an inmate. He plays his puppet show for an audience of psychology students who have come to hear him relate his autobiographical story. He introduces the characters: Dean’s puppet, Wayne’s puppet, and the puppets of several dead boys. He also plays his own role, that of David. David and Wayne are a teenage couple. Dean is older than them. In their house, they talk of multiple murders they committed together: in the cave, the victims were killed by Dean, with the help of Wayne, after having been sexually assaulted, tortured and mutilated. The crimes were recorded on camera by David. The series of murders goes on until the murder of Jamie – a boy Wayne was in love with. Wayne is blinded by rage and kills Dean. David suggests that they put an end to the killing spree. Wayne agrees in a first time. But when he meets Brad, another boy, and engages in an erotic game at the end of which he takes Dean’s place: he tortures Brad until he kills him. After the murder, David kills Wayne during a panic attack. Then he calls the police and confesses to his crimes.

Cooper Dennis

Brest

Torture

Blood

Perversity

Madness

Drugs

Serial killer

Teenagers

United States of America

Drug addiction

Minor news

Schizophrenia

Evil

Tragic

Humorous

Gore

Dennis Cooper, Jerk, stage direction by Gisèle Vienne, 2008.

English

Alternating narrative / dialogue

Recounting of memories

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Off-stage voice

Musical pause

Jerk

In an American high school, a group of girls decide to make a secret pact. They choose to get pregnant together, then flee their town and found a female community. When the headmaster realises what is happening, he tries to cover it up, fearing confrontation with parents and the media, but inevitably everything comes to light. The girls inform their boyfriends of their pregnancies by text message, and then they organise their escape. The parents' cries will not deter them from their intentions. On the contrary, these same cries will turn into reflections on their own faults and on the causes of this shocking pact.

Hanswurst von Salzburg mit dem hölzernen Gat

Les Jeux de l'amour et du bazar

Entre Chien et Loup

L'Oggre et la poupée

Jerk

Sorry, boys

Discussions about a secret pact for 12 severed heads