Polichinelle tells his Compère (Companion) that he has come into a private income and wishes to host a ball, but Compère explains that this income will barely be enough to buy a candle. A Turk arrives and gives sumptuous Grand Turk clothes to Polichinelle as well as the key to his seraglio. Polichinelle joins the women of the seraglio, his Compère sings a song and the play ends with a group of shepherds and shepherdesses dancing.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Manuscript

Enrichment

Foreigner

Ball

Money

Seraglio

Ballet

Comical

French

Polichinelle

The Interpreter

Turk

Sheperherdess

Change of social status

Final song

Dialogue with a character in the audience

Polichinelle Grand-Turc

Polichinelle Grand Turk

The play is set in 2077, in a military dictatorship. Everything happens in the cellar of a common citizen – Joan. One day when she comes back from work, she finds Dummy in it. He broke into her apartment by breaking a window, as he was trying to hide from the army. He does not own papers and has been shoplifting to survive. At first, Joan believes that he wants to rob her and asks him to hand her his knife. But Dummy is homeless and undocumented: his knife is his only means of defence. What is more, he is emotionally attached to it. Joan then agrees to feed and hide Dummy. He relates his past and confides that he was forced by soldiers to kill one of his parents. Joan and Dummy call on a smuggler, Jack, who promises to forge papers for Dummy, which would allow him to cross the border. However, the money Dummy was keeping in a box has disappeared. At this point, Jack declares that he has links with the army and threatens to report them. Despite the help Joan offers him (she goes as far as trying to request a loan), Dummy turns down her offer to run away with her: he says he wants to leave with Jack and to continue to steal for a living. Joan’s life has radically changed since meeting Dummy, for whom she says she has sacrificed everything. She does not understand his decision and launches into a xenophobic monologue, during which she inflicts extreme violence on Dummy. She stabs him several times, steps on him and tears him up. At the end of the play, the actor dubbing Dummy’s voice walks among the “debris” of the puppets and speaks in a fictional language.

Actor and puppet

Mannequin

Young audiences

Bond Edward

Great Britain

London

Northampton

Printed

Dystopia

Migrant

Murder

Escape

Dramatic

Tragic

Fantastic

Edward Bond, The Chair Plays, 2012.

English

Host

Murderer

Puppet

Emigrant

Thief

Soldier

Puppeteer

Smuggler

Crook

Recounting of memories

Sleeping character

Imaginary language

Argument

Fight between an actor and a puppet

Murder on stage

Stabbing

Destruction of a puppet

The Under Room

Sous-chambre