In a dusty underground passageway of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, several historical and legendary inventors discuss the automatons they have built. Each one talks about their inventions, dreams or utopian visions: a bronze fly to chase away real flies, a hydraulic theatre, giant automata with colossal voices preaching peace, mechanical lions and magic apples, two metal heads with superhuman voices, and an automaton that knows every language. Suddenly, a human automaton—the robot—appears. The robot knocks over all the characters and throws Jaquet-Droz to the ground, just as he was explaining that the word written on a sheet of paper by his writing automaton was ‘marvellous’.

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Automate

Phantom

Science

Discussions

Invention

Remembrance

Rivalry

Merveilleux

Fantastic

French

Albert le Grand

Héron d'Alexandrie

Virgile de Naples

Regiomontanus

Roger Bacon

Thomas de Bungey

Johann Wolfgang von Kempelen

Léonard de Vinci

L'Abbé Mical

Jacques Droz

Automaton

Robot

Jacques Vaucanson

Inserting poetry

Aside

Apparition of a ghost

Off-stage noise

Succession de personnages

Voice

Destruction of a puppet

Au paradis des fantômes

In ghost paradise

A runaway slave meets a dragon which threatens to breathe fire on him; he asks the dragon whether it has the sultan’s permission to do so, predicting that the dragon will eat his former master before the guard kills it. But things do not turn out exactly as expected. Right before the audience, the dragon meets a knight who wants the sultan to recognise his superiority to become a knight too. The sultan refuses to talk, appointing the dragon to speak in his stead and authorising him to breathe fire on the knight. The slave returns in order to sit on the throne that he thinks empty – and it is indeed soon to be the case, because the sultan suddenly decides to follow in the deceased knight’s footsteps and take his place. Meanwhile, the fat Katja, who was dancing and singing for the sultan, has moved in with the dragon, and everyone is invited for coffee.

String marionette

Young audiences

Fühmann Franz

Germany

Märkisch Buchholz

Tyranny

Slave

Emancipation

Animals, Mythical

Reign

Despotism

Turkey

Forecast

Tolerance

Vocation

Coffee

Slogan

Politics

Civism

Love

Couple

Society

Black

Humorous

Fantasy

Satirical

German

Wie wird man Oberdiskutierer

Magician

Fat lady

Dragon

Sultan

Knight

Spectacular turn of events

Intervention of the audience

Imbroglio

Talking animal

Song

Object coming to life

Political allegory

Prologue

Address to the public

Personification

Optional scene

Talking at cross-purposes

Improvised scene

Der glückliche Ritter von Trinitat

The happy Knight of Trinitat