Guignol – a ragman – is upset as he finds nothing to resell. He comes across Gnafron, who is sleeping. Guignol is engaged to Louison – Gnafron’s daughter – but the three of them are lazy and penniless. They find a poster of the aeronaut Baloffet, who is about to take off for the Moon in a balloon and offers two thousand francs to whoever will go with him. Guignol volunteers and shares half of the advance on the reward with Gnafron. Louison is staying with her father and reproaches him for spending all the money he makes repairing shoes on wine. But the Bailli (bailiff) comes in and offers Gnafron twenty francs so that he shares with him the letters Guignol will send from the Moon. The balloon flies over a few forests then lands in the North Pole, before finally taking off for the Moon. Louison reads out Guignol’s first letter to the Bailli: Guignol is still on his way. On the Moon, the King and Queen attend a party where “mechanised dancers” are performing. Some guards bring in Guignol, who has just arrived. The King and Queen show him their wings. They are surprised to see that Guignol does not have any. They first consider putting him in a cage, but instead they ask him questions about life on Earth and how he travelled to the Moon. Guignol offers to establish business relationships between the Moon and the Earth. The King’s subjects revolt. Having been impressed by the gun Guignol carries, the King appoints him general-in-chief of his army. Guignol sends Baloffet back to Earth so that he brings Louison and Gnafron, who were already packing their things. Back on the Moon, Guignol has defeated the rebels, and he celebrates his victory by drinking wine. The Queen privately confesses her love to him. Gnafron and Louison have arrived on the Moon and come celebrate Guignol’s victory too. Gnafron is appointed as the King’s sommelier and the plays ends with a grand finale and a last verse.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Josserand Claude Louis François (aka Louis Josserand père)

France

Lyon

Manuscript

Moon

Gas balloon

Meals

Wine

Celebrity

Misery

Revolt

Seduction

Scatology

Comical

Fantasy

French

Guignol dans la Lune

Guignol

Gnafron

Inhabitants on the moon

Bailli

Prime Minister

Aeronaut

Queen

Guard

Monologue

Teichoscopy

Song

Off-stage voice

Letter

Ellipsis

Aside

Apotheosis

Versified passages

Final song

Flying machine

Word warping

Le Voyage de Guignol dans la Lune

Guignol travels to the Moon

Madame Pifardent (literally, Madame Fiery-snout) has been disfigured by sulfuric acid, and a trial ensues to find the culprit. The accused, Émile Belenfant-des-Dames, who is described as “the worst kind of villain, already sentenced to death in absentia nine times”, has been arrested at the Belgian border, 600 kilometres away from the crime scene at the time when it was committed. The Greffier (Court clerk) assures that Belenfant could have covered this distance thanks to the miracles of the railway. Belenfant denies any connection to Madame Pifardent and claims to be innocent. The witnesses are called. Gustave Courbet says that he only knows his paintings. He digresses and talks about the woman he would marry: a woman who could barely read and write, who would not know how to dance and who would wear a straw hat. Gioachino Rossini, who knows nothing about the case, talks about the “macaroni dell’arte”. After him, Alfred de Caston performs a magic trick with cards and dominoes. He leaves the room to the applause. Then, Émile de Girardin speaks; he talks about freedom, peace, his writing and especially his drama Le Supplice d’une femme (The Torture of a woman). He quickly disappears. Alexandre Dumas senior only talks about his accomplishments. Jules Simon, dressed as a primary school teacher, arrives. He passionately discusses the importance of education and of schools, and then leaves. Adolphe Thiers goes after him and talks about his duty. The last witness, the docteur Tardieu (Doctor Tardieu) describes his science experiments on frogs using sulfuric acid. Madame Pifardent’s lawyer, Maître Favre, starts the pleas with a grandiloquent speech filled with metaphors. Then, the accused’s lawyer, Maître Lachaud, starts talking. He accuses Belenfant by recounting his past crimes. To defend himself, Belenfant retorts that those wrongdoings date back to the time of Louis Philippe. He also tries to justify his actions with his lack of education, and explains that he comes from a poor family. The Juge (Judge) interrupts him and forbids him from giving a “philosophical” speech. M. Prudhomme, the foreman of the jury, announces the verdict: the accused is found not guilty. Belenfant demands that a lament be sung in his honour. Before this, M. Prudhomme offers him to… marry his daughter.

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

Printed

Crime

Justice

Trial

Guilty

Witness

Absurd

Satirical

Lemercier de Neuville, illustration for Le Procès Belefant-des-Dames, 1868.

Judge

Court usher

Defendant

Leader

Clerk

Lawyer

Constable

Gustave Courbet

Gioachino Rossini

Alfred de Caston

Émile de Girardin

Alexandre Dumas senior

Adolphe Thiers

Court scene

Comical regional accent

Sung scenes

Change of head on sight

Comical foreign accent

Apparition of a wizard

Magic act

Address to the public

Music

Le Procès Belenfant-des-Dames

The Trial of Belenfant-des-Dames

Thanks to a new type of telescope that brought the Moon at one metre, the astronomer Télescopos and his servant Babylas, the watchman of the Observatory of Monaco, made a breakthrough; they end up on the Moon and are unable to leave. They meet strange and fantastic people, either allegorical or taken from recent events. As the Moon is waning, the residents have less and less space and want to go back to Earth. Télescopos, Babylas’s master, builds a new telescope to accomplish that. The play ends with a cellist reciting verses as payment for the journey back to Earth.

Silhouette

Shadow theatre

Adults

Principality of Monaco

Monte Carlo

Strike

Invention

Telescope

Women's condition

Divorce

Gender equality

Government

Corruption

Social issue

Shelter

Colonialism

Parliament

Decadence

Astronomy

Psychological novel

Pantheon

Tourism

Fashion phenomenon

Revue fantaisiste en 3 actes

Astronomer

Domestic servant

Writer

Member of parliament

Savage

Guardian

Singer

Actress

Singer (female)

Cellist

Personification

Ballet

Caricature

Aria

Current affairs

As-tu vu la lune, mon gas ?

Have you seen the moon, mate?

The avant-garde painter Kompowski, annoyed by the critics who come to see him in his workshop, goes to the café. The drunken servant, Kasperl, takes advantage of his absence to paint a canvas with a very bad view of Munich. Gallery owners who had come to acquire the master's works bought his paintings from him for a thousand marks. The crowd comes to cheer the artist. But the critic Schaikeles eventually learns the identity of the real creator of the painting. Anzenmaier and Burger, the gallery owners, come to claim their money when Kompowski returns home, and the fight becomes widespread. Kasperl puts an end to this by smashing the paintings over the heads of the gallery owners and knocking Gombrowski out with his easel.

Blümel Otto

Germany

Munich

Painting

Futurism

Modernity

Expressionism

Art criticism

Drunkenness

Beer

Mean trick

Burlesque

Farcical

German

Painter

Kasperl

Reviewer

Crowd

Misunderstanding

Parody of formal language

Chorus

Instrumental tune

Brawl

Dialect

Die Maler

The painters

A famous artist who has failed in her family and love life finds it very difficult to interact socially. She doesn't like fame and prefers to remain unnoticed, but everyone who knows her tries to take advantage of her success: family members, the mayor of her home town, friends who invite her to add glamour to their parties. One boy has very deep feelings for her, feelings that his Siamese twin does not share. Tired of it all, the girl accepts a frog's proposal: for her life to change, she must kiss it. She accepts and her fame disappears: she becomes a different woman.

Le Voyage de Guignol dans la Lune

Le Procès Belenfant-des-Dames

As-tu vu la lune, mon gas ?

Revue fantaisiste en 3 actes

Die Maler

L'èxit és l'ombra

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