In the Underworld, Plutone (Pluto) and Proserpina dispatch their armies of Erinyes on Earth, ordering them to punish Odoardo, the tyran from Thebes. Filone and Ormondo, the King's counsels, are waiting for the King to return and celebrate his wedding with the young Erminda. Ormondo confesses his love to Pasquella, Girello's wife, who turns him down: Girello says that he will beat him and, taking revenge, Ormondo sends him to prison. At Court, Doralba, the King's sister, is desperately in love with the slave Mustafa. Filone and Ormondo demand that Girello be punished, and he is sentenced to exile. Mustafa gives him a little money, before joining Doralba and singing his love to her: as he is overeager, Doralba denounces him to Odoardo. Girello, exiled in the woods, meets a magician who introduces himself as the Patriarch of the abyss. To prove his title, he shows him several diabolical creatures. Scared, Girello tries to send him off, but the magician offers to help him. The stage transforms into the entrance of the Underworld: demons are coming out of it to dress Girello with kingly clothes. If he keeps these clothes on and puts a magic root next to the King, Girello will look like Odoardo, and Odoardo will look like Girello. Girello arrives at Court in his new clothes and announces a series of harebrained laws, before calling his counsels “Governator delle galline” (governor of hens) and “Segretario maggior della brachetta” (Secretary General of the (Trousers) Fly). He arrives without his sword, is recognised as Girello, comes back with his sword and is seen as the King, even though his servants think that he has changed because he is no longer greedy. The old Pasquella prays to Girello, whom she believes to be the King, asking him to allow her to marry again so her youth is not lost in waiting for her husband. As for Mustafa, who has been accused of trying to rape the King's sister, he asks for his forgiveness. Girello throws Ormondo and Filone behind bars, chooses Mustafa as his favourite, and tells Pasquella to wait and see what is coming for her. The real Odoardo, surprised to find his counsel in prison, asks Tartaglia to release them. From this arises a first misunderstanding, as Tartaglia cannot make sense of the King's inconsistent orders. Conversely, Mustafa thanks Odoardo for his good deed; the King does not understand why, and he puts him in prison, with Doralba, who confessed that she was in love with the slave. Girello asks for the lovers to be released, then he marries them and sends Filone and Ormondo to the galleys. When Tartaglia tells him about his contradictory behaviour, Girello demands that he be beaten with a stick the next time he loses his memory. Pasquello, begging for a husband, is willing to react positively to the advances of the so-called King, who swears that she will be beaten; Erminda is getting ready to spend the night with Girello, whom she believes to be her husband. Girello manages to slip the root in Odoardo's belongings. The King, standing in front of his doppelganger, fails to understand the situation, and he despairs when Tartaglia asks him to bow before Girello. In prison, where he was sent, Odoardo asks for his wife to intervene in his favour: it is Pasquella, and not Erminda, who answers him. At this point, the magician decides to remove the veil from the mortals' eyes—he turns Tartaglia into a statue, and tells Girello that he is taking his royal status away, for he has misused it. Girello tries to have him beaten, but the magician reveals the truth to everyone. Neither Pasquella nor Erminda knows where her real husband is anymore; as for Mustafa, it is revealed that he is the son of the King of Cyprus and Erminda's brother, which makes his marriage with the King's sister acceptable. The magician sets the example of forgiveness to the King by giving Tartaglia his human form back: Odoardo then forgives Girello.

"On foot and by rod" puppet

Marionette with counterweight

Not specified

Acciaiuoli Filippo (aka Gran Burattinajo)

Italy

Ronciglione

Venice

Printed

Revenge

Magic

Apparences

Reign

Love

Social condition

Fantasy

Burlesque

Comical

Farcical

Girello, 1668 (front cover).

Italian

Pluto

Proserpina

King

Queen

Sister

Slave

Brother

Pedant

Counselor

Nurse

Gardener

Prison guard

Magician

Music

Play in verse

Prologue

Macaronism

Confinement

Avista

Demons dance

Change of social status

Apparition of a wizard

Apparition of demons

Interlude

Enchantment

Transforming one character into another

Disguised character (false identity)

Role reversal

Misunderstanding

Blow-with-a-stick

Seduction scene

Thwarted love

Love duet

Allusion to the audience

Revelation

Girello

The Wandering Man

A couple made of two numbers give birth to a child, but it is a zero. His father does not accept him, because the child does not look like him. At school, his classmates do not want to play with him either, because he does not have any value. Zero goes to the country of the eights, poses as an eight by joining two zeros, but he realises that the eights are also intolerant. As an eight, he enters the country of the threes, looking like two threes put together, and the threes believe he is a higher being. But when he admits that he is a zero, he is arrested for being an impostor. Then, the threes ask for the wise man’s help. He says that zero adds value to each number, if he stands to their right. Indeed, the numbers realise that if they combine with a zero, they are more valuable. In the end, everyone wants to be friends with the zero. It proves that, on his own, zero was doomed to be nothing and to be sad, but once he lives with other numbers, he is very happy.

Actor and puppet

Tabletop Puppetry

Young audiences

Spain

Valencia

Algimia de alfar

Electronic text

Fable

Numbers

Discrimination

Immigration

Multiculturalism

Didactic

A scene from a performance of História d'un zero, by Empar Claramunt

Catalan

Narrator

Wise man

Història d'un zero

Story of a zero

A flesh-and-blood Pulcinella speaks to the audience about his secret passion for books and, in particular, for Shakespeare's Macbeth. While reading a book and manipulating chess pieces on a small table in front of a castelet, Pulcinella tells the story of Macbeth. At the end, convinced that it's impossible for such a wicked character to die, he casts a spell to keep Macbeth alive. Pulcinella enters in the puppet boots and "Mr. Punch Macbeth" appears on stage.
After hitting his wife Judy and making a sausage with the Baby, Mr Punch-Macbeth meets Hamlet, played by a Pierrot puppet. In an absurd dialogue between the two characters, their stories mingle and Hamlet ends up killing Mr Punch-Macbeth, shouting, « Essere o non essere, non è un problema! » (« To be or not to be isn’t a problem! »). Hamlet falls in love with Juliette, but his brother (a Sicilian pupo) and the puppeteer prevent the marriage of a glove puppet and a marionette. Juliette drinks a potion which makes her appear to be dead. Hamlet swallows a poison which turns him into a glove puppet representing Mobârak (the black valet of the Iranian puppet theater), in the role of Othello.
Othello mistakes Juliette for Desdemona and kills her before remembering that he himself is Romeo. In despair, he commits suicide. Iago enters, interpreted by a puppet with the head of the Neapolitan actor Totò, and proclaims himself king of the wicked. But he is immediately attacked and killed by a Polichinelle playing the part of Richard III. All the characters haunt the sleep of Polichinelle-Richard III: Mr Punch-Macbeth, Hamlet-Romeo, Othello, Iago. In the end, he is pursued by Death, but a horse with Pulcinella’s white hat and black half-mask comes to save him. At this moment, a marotte representing Shakespeare intervenes to bring the show to an end. Accompanied by the song Che cosa sono le nuvole? by Domenico Modugno and Pier Paolo Pasolini, taken from Pasolini's movie of the same name, the puppets make a final appearance on the puppet booth stage.

Girello

Història d'un zero

Pulchi Shake and Speare

Miscellanea di drammi shakespeariani in guarattellesco by Pulcinella Cetrulo