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

Transforming one character into another

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.

Full-view manipulation

Armed rod marionette

Marotte

String marionette

Glove-puppet

Object theatre

All audiences

Leone Bruno

Italy

Naples

Manuscript

Wickedness

Evil

Serial murder

Regicide

Impossible love

Love

Jealousy

Plot

Puppets

Comical

Parodistic

Neapolitan

Miscellanea di drammi shakespeariani in guarattellesco by Pulcinella Cetrulo

Pulcinella

Witch

Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

Messenger

Duncan

Banquo

Macduff

Punch

Judy

Hamlet

Romeo

Pierrot

Juliet

Puppeteer

Tybalt

Count Paris

Othello

Mobârak

Iago

Totò

Richard III

Polichinelle

Horse

William Shakespeare

Public

Crocodile

Sculptor monk

Death

Stabbing

Blow-with-a-stick

Sword fight

Transforming scenery

Storyteller

Thwarted love

Metamorphosis

Fake death

Nightmare

Apparition of Death

Apparition of a ghost

Monologue

Final song

Spectacular turn of events

Pulchi Shake and Speare