Martin, a woodcutter, frees a fairy from an oak tree she has been trapped in for 500 years. The fairy gives him a ring that allows him to fulfil three wishes. Martin confides the secret to his wife Margreth, who tells Casperl, their neighbour. While Martin goes to ask the mayor and the priest for advice, Margreth, in conversation with Casperl, takes it upon herself to wish for a plate of sausages, even though she has the ring on her finger: her wish is immediately fulfilled. Seeing this, Martin retrieves the ring and, in his anger, vows that his wife will have sausages hanging from her nose. The wish comes true and the two men are no longer able to amputate Margreth's sausage appendages: all they can do is wish them away, and the gift of the three wishes is wasted.

String marionette

Young audiences

Germany

Munich

Printed

Poverty

Spell

Dwarf

Ring

Secret

Beer

Hypocrisy

Sausage

Lust

Marvelous

Burlesque

Humorous

Grotesque

German

Fée

Bûcheron

Kasperl

Song

Off-stage voices

Metatheatre

Appearance

Metamorphosis

Die drei Wünsche

The three wishes

The widow Werner lives with her young son Ludwig in misery: a sad Christmas is coming. To surprise her son, Mrs Werner goes out to buy a small pine tree and some apples. In her absence, Ludwig writes a letter to baby Jesus, asking for an illustrated Bible: he throws the letter out of the window addressing it to the angels. On Christmas morning, a package is delivered containing the Bible he asked for. The donor is Friedrich Walter, an old friend of the deceased Karl Werner: he has just returned from a long trip to the Orient and is inquiring at the police station about the widow's address, when some officers tell him of the amusing discovery of Ludwig's letter. Friedrich Walter takes the widow and child under his protection.

Reading

Education

Hanswurst

Bible

Childhood

Crib

Piety

Sentimentalism

Social realism

Social drama

Realist

Pathetic

Monologue

Letter

Transforming scenery

Chorus

Deus ex machina

Der Weihnachts-Brief

Christmas Letter

The rich Niflanguille goes to buy a bag of coal. He comes across the hungry Pierrot, who asks for his help in vain. The coalman cheats Niflanguille out of the weight of the bag. Pierrot hides in the bag and beats up the coalman, Niflanguille and the servant. Back home, Niflanguille looks for a sword to pierce the recalcitrant bag, but Pierrot gets it out in time and forces the servant to take his place. While Niflanguille pierces the bag and his servant with it, Pierrot runs away with a bag of money. A Gendarme wants to hang Niflanguille for murder, Pierrot for theft and the coalman for swindling. Pierrot kills the Gendarme and puts him in the sack, which he throws away, while Niflanguille flees through the window. Pierrot kills the coalman to avoid sharing the money, then orders wine which he pays for by beating the innkeeper with a stick. The Commissaire arrives with Niflanguille; he hangs Pierrot, but confiscates the money to punish the bad rich man.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

France

Paris

Charcoal

Hunger

Swindling

Trade

Deception

Contempt

Punishment

Hanging

Money

Bad rich

Farce

Didactic

French

Pierrot

Niflanguille

Le Charbonnier

Domestique

Le Gendarme

Le Commissaire

Hidden character

Running gag

Blows-with-a-stick

Hanging scene

Le Sac de charbon

The Bag of Coal

While all poor people on the outskirts of Munich deposit their savings in Adele Spitzeder's bank, sometimes even selling their businesses to live on their income, Kasperl is looking for a job. Through his brother Baldhauser (also known as Baldes), a door-to-door salesman, he was placed as a doorman at Adele Spitzeder's house. He introduces the bank's customers to the bank office, where she receives them with her proverbial frankness. But at the end of his first day on the job, the police come and arrest the banker for fraud and close the place down: Kasperl beats down the poor people who come to claim their money. The fourth act or epilogue is a picture of country life: following a quarrel with his wife, Kasperl's other brother, Melchior, goes drinking with the town crier. Kasperl and Baldes enter the stage to conclude the play with a song.

Not specified

Scandal

Finance

Stock exchange

Bank

Embezzlement

Bavaria

Politics

Society

Peasantry

Popular class

People

Misery

Bankruptcy

Satirical

Social comedy

Comical

Marionettenspiel um einen Münchner Finanzskandal im Jahre 1873

Serveur

Le Paysan

Berger

Agent de police

Employé municipal

Flying machine

Spectacular turn of events

Inn scene

Catastrophe

Conversation

Political allegory

Slang

Argument

Use of dialect as a social marker

Caricature

Brawl

Adele Spitzeder

Martin is secretly in love with the beautiful Eleonora Lambriani, a mysterious dancer with a legendary reputation. However, he has already sworn his love to Sophie. When Martin prepares to leave in order to offer his life and his money to Eleonora, his cousin Cassian arrives at his house. Initially inconsolable because of the departure of her lover, Sophie changes from the virtuous girl to the woman expressing her desire for Cassian, then she elopes with him by jumping out of the window. Martin dies by the hand of Cassian, poor as a church mouse, as he has lost all his money in a dice game against Cassian.

Die drei Wünsche

Der Weihnachts-Brief

Le Sac de charbon

Adele Spitzeder

Marionettenspiel um einen Münchner Finanzskandal im Jahre 1873

Der tapfere Cassian

Puppenspiel in einem Akt