A Marchande (female merchant), in love with an employee of the shop (the Courtaud (Shorty)), believes that he is interested in her daughter. A Servante (female servant) arouses the jealousy of a Laquais (male servant). A drunk Musicien (male Musician) tells a Suisse (Swiss man) that his wife is unfaithful to him. Polichinelle tries to seduce a Grisette (Shop girl), meets a Peintre (male painter) who wanted to paint his portrait, and then joins a Troupe de Buveurs (a Group of Drinkers): they dance a divertissement and sing a vaudeville at the end of the play.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Love

Seduction

Unfaithfulness

Drunkenness

Wine

Cabaret

Valet

Comical

Satirical

First page of the manuscript of Polichinelle à la guinguette de Vaugirard.

French

Merchant (woman)

Shop employee

Maid

Swiss

Musician

Polichinelle

Grisette

Painter

Inn scene

Play with drawers

Comical foreign accent

Love story

Final song

Dancing entertainment

Conversation

Aria

Polichinelle à la guinguette de Vaugirard

Polichinelle at the guinguette of Vaugirard

Incredibly thirsty, Polichinelle and Niflanguille order a barrel of wine to the tavern-keeper Baillenflé, but they refuse to pay for it, fight him and then run away. To avenge himself, Baillenflé asks his brother the Sorcier (Sorcerer) to bewitch the barrel before gifting it to Polichinelle and Niflanguille as a sign of truce. When the two stooges open it, a Crocodile comes out and bites Polichinelle’s nose. To get rid of the Crocodile, Polichinelle offers it different objects before pushing Niflanguille towards it. The Crocodile takes Niflanguille away, Polichinelle closes the barrel and calls a Gendarme (Constable) for help. The Gendarme opens the barrel and the Crocodile takes him away as well. Polichinelle kills a Soldat (Soldier) with a cannon blow to feed the Crocodile. As soon as the reptile exits the barrel, Polichinelle enters it to get some wine. The Crocodile comes back, tries to catch Polichinelle, and moves towards his house. Worried for his family, Polichinelle and the Sorcier join forces to hang the Crocodile. When Polichinelle thinks that he can finally drink in peace, the Diable (Devil) arrives, locks him in the barrel and drags him to Hell.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Thirst

Theft

Cunning

Crocodile

Magic

Cannon

Farcical

Magician

Sorcerer

Constable

Soldier

Devil

Running gag

Final intervention of the devil

Character crushed by a barrel

Blow-with-a-stick

Comical fall of a character

Character thrown in the air

Fight with an animal

Cannon shot

Chase

Song

Hanging scene

Le Tonneau

The Barrel

King Mirambole is tyrannical, vain and hypochondriac, and he wants to marry. Three rival courtiers (the Doctor, the Astrologer and the Goldsmith) flatter the King, smear one another and conspire to persuade him to choose a woman from their respective families as his wife. The Doctor convinces the King that only a comet put on his forehead will cure him of all his pains. To cause the Astrologer’s downfall, he also advises the King to leave this task to him. The Astrologer suggests that the King ask the Goldsmith to make one, while the Goldsmith persuades the King to entrust the Doctor and the Astrologer with the task. In the end, the valet Pierrot commits to bringing the king a comet. Pierrot goes to his brother, an innkeeper, brings back a bottle of “comet wine” and convinces his niece Balibutte to follow him. When he comes back to the palace, he introduces his niece as a comet embodied in a woman, and he cures the king with the wine. Balibutte relates a dream to the king, which both exposes the courtiers’ betrayals and tells him how to punish them. The king executes the courtiers, marries Balibutte and names Pierrot grand vizier.

Brokers

Ambition

Flattery

Conspiracy

Tyrant

Wedding

Vanity

Self-deception

Cruelty

Comet

Cure

Illness

Dream

Rivalry

Melancholy

Fantasy

Front page of La Comète du Roi Mirambole, 1862.

Astrologer

Physician

Executioner

Pierrot

Cabaret owner

Herald

Aside

Off-stage noise

Public announcement

Execution scene

Account of a dream

Monologue

La Comète du Roi Mirambole

The Comet of King Mirambole

Invited to the international convention of handymen in Chicago, Dr. Haase builds a rocket to go there. Two gangsters witness the landing and try to steal the rocket, but Haase manages to flee and goes to see Turnip, the organiser of the convention; the convention is actually an excuse invented to attract the German scientist. Turnip looks for ways to corrupt Haase, his daughter Elvyra tries to seduce him, and the gangster Bill tries to kill him. With the help of the black servant Ann, Haase manages to flee with the rocket and, at the same time, saves Ann’s son Tom from a lynching.

Young audiences

Hoke Werner

Germany

Leipzig

Criminal

Rocket

Money

Capitalism

Corruption

Science

German Democratic Republic (GDR)

America

Debauchery

Racism

Front cover of the collection Drei Puppenspiele

German

Satirisches Puppenspiel für große Kinder

Gangster

Policeman

Fake death

Brawl

Trap

Running away

Macaronism

Bawdy equivocation

Die Amerikareise

The trip to America

Toulouse-Lautrec retraces his life marked by the illness that prevented him from enjoying the pleasures of the nobility to which he belonged, in the Albi family home: outdoor games, hunting, parties, etc. The only pastime that made him forget his illness was painting; because of this he decided to leave for Paris to perfect his art. There, he took refuge in the shadows of the artistic and literary bohemian nights, alcohol, brothels, cabarets, café-concerts, circuses and marginal districts to hide his disability.