A young alchemist, Émile, and his assistant Guignol are preparing for their final experiment—to create a man. Instead of a man, however, a Monstre (Monster) rises out of the cauldron, scaring the two men as well as Émile’s fiancée, Amélie, the daughter of Baron de Valbreuze. Émile and Guignol go to a cemetery, where they are advised by a Squelette (Skeleton) to question an old Alchimiste (Alchemist), who can teach them how to get rid of the Monstre. The Monstre is devoured by ghosts and disappears. Guignol and Émile go back to the Baron and to his daughter, and the young couple signs a marriage contract.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Vuillerme-Dunand Victor-Napoléon

France

Paris

Manuscript

Alchemy

Monster

Double

Wedding

Cemetery

Fantastic

Comical

Le Monstre et l'alchimiste, censorship archives (first page of the text)

French

Le Monstre et l'alchimiste

Alchemist

Guignol

Skeleton

Undead

Monologue

Comedy of language

Dialect as a social marker

Aside

Pyrotechnics

Explosion

Apparition of a monster

Fausse sortie

Comical fall of a character

Fainting

Magical disappearance

Chase

Dead talking character

Apparition of a ghost

Final song

The Alchemist

Guignol tells the Directeur (Director) that he thinks highly of theatre. He asks to be introduced to the audience, and jokes with him about being made of wood. Ubu kills the king Venceslas. The Queen dies, and the Ombre (Shadow) of one of her ancestors gives the young prince Bougrelas a sword, so that he can avenge his father. Ubu robs and slaughters Nobles, dismisses the judges and makes them all fall through the trapdoor. Ubu goes fight the Russian army, and Mère Ubu (Mother Ubu) and her accomplice Giron try to steal his treasures while he is away. On the battlefield, Ubu is chased out by the Russian army led by the Tzar. An Ours (bear) attacks general Lascy and prevails. In the meantime, Ubu has taken shelter in a tree. Mère Ubu meets her husband and they both prepare to leave for France. But Bougrelas appears and has them arrested by the Gendarmes (Police), and asks for them to locked up in France and for Père Ubu (Father Ubu)’s brain to be removed.

Jarry Alfred

Printed

Regicide

Tyranny

Theft

Voracity

Treasure

Slaughter

Army

Revenge

Police (French gendarmerie)

Grotesque

Farcical

Ubu's puppet in Ubu sur la butte, 1901.

Father Ubu

Mother Ubu

Captain

Queen

Ghost

General

Emperor

Noble

Clerk

Magistrato

Counselor

Financier

Soldier

Russian

Pole

Bear

Horse

Constable

Prologue

Blow-with-a-stick

Song

Dance

Murder on stage

Parade

Plot scene

Battlefield scene

Fight with an animal

Ubu sur la butte

Ubu on the hilllock

In Carlo Magno’s (Charlemagne) royal palace, paladins are getting ready to fight Agramante, who has besieged Paris, and his army. In a wood, while she is waiting for her lover Ruggero, Bradamante kills a snake; then she saves a soldier who was in danger because of another snake. The solider tells him that Ruggero is going to marry Marfisa and he promises Bradamante that he will lead her to Agramante’s camp, so she can challenge Ruggero in a duel. In the enemy camp, the knights are preparing to fight Carlo Magno’s army. Marfisa tends to Ruggero, who was wounded by Mandricardo. When Bradamante arrives, Marfisa goes to fight her in Ruggero’s stead. The two warriors fight in a duel. Ruggero arrives to split them up. When he learns that the knight fighting Marfisa is his beloved Bradamante, he explains that he could not meet with her at the appointed time because he was wounded. Marfisa eavesdrops on the conversation, without being seen, and discovers that Ruggero is in love with Bradamante. Ruggero and Marfisa are about to fight when the ghost of the magician Atlante appears and reveals that they are the twin children of the Chrisitan king Ruggero di Risa. Ruggero and Marfisa reconcile, decide to be christened and to go with Bradamante to Carlo Magno’s court.

Rod marionette

Armed rod marionette

Rod and string marionette

Italy

Palermo

Typewriting

Love

Duel

Twins

Jealousy

Phantom

Encounter

Epic

Italian

Furiosa e terribile battaglia tra Bradamante e Marfisa per amore di Angelica

Charlemagne (King)

Bradamante

Paladin (female)

King

Saracen

Moorish

Agramante

Warrior

Marfisia

Warrior (female)

Empress

Roger

Knight

Magician

Atlante

Sword fight

Duel scene

Hidden character

Spectacular turn of events

Battaglia tra Bradamante e Marfisa

Battle between Bradamante and Marfisa

In King Agramante’s camp, where the Moorish knights have gathered to fight Carlo Magno, Rodomonte and Mandricardo decide to challenge each other in a duel for Doralice’s love. But Ruggero does not want Mandricardo to fight under Hercules’ insignias, which he claims for himself. At the end of the duel, Mandricardo dies and Ruggero is seriously injured. In a wood, while she waits for her lover Ruggero, Bradamante kills a rhinoceros. Then she kills a snake and, by doing so, saves a soldier’s life. The soldier tells her that Ruggero is going to marry Marfisa. Bradamante then goes to Agramante’s camp. She challenges Marfisa in a duel. After separating the two duellists, Ruggero chases Bradamante to explain that he has missed their rendezvous because of his injury. Marfisa hides and eavesdrop on their conversation, and so discovers that Ruggero is in love with Bradamante. Ruggero and Marfisa are about to battle when the ghost of the magician Atlante appears and reveals that they are the twin children of the Christian king Ruggero di Risa. Ruggero and Marfisa reconcile, decide to be christened and go with Bradamante to Carlo Magno’s court.

Typed or electronic text with handwritten annotations

Riconoscimento

Rodomonte

Mandricard

Profeta

Sobrino

Doralice

Princess

Gradasse

Rhinoceros

Snake

Battaglia tra Bradamante e Ruggero e Marfisa

Battle between Bradamante, Ruggero and Marfisa. Recognition

On an abandoned lot, Joe talks to his puppet. He cannot bring himself to abandon it and so concludes that he must kill it. He then hits it several times with a brick. At home, his mother is most evidently drunk. She indicates a house and forces him to set it on fire. Joe then meets with his friends and lets them know what he is about to do. At that moment, Stranger, a child none of the other children knows, arrives, but he is soon driven off the lot. Joe’s friends make a deal: one by one, as the dummy is lying on the ground, they drop a brick on it and promise to keep Joe’s secret. The latter sets the house on fire. When he learns that a young boy has died in the fire, he decides to run off to Peterborough with his friends. Before they leave, a man faints before them. The children take care of him and carry him on a stretcher. Once on the road, the world seems to have turned into a wasteland. Some children begin to disappear. Some do not want to continue on carrying the man, although Joe refuses to abandon him. Others are accused of having gone to the police to tell on them. But then the man kills a child with a brick during the night. After the man murders Joe’s remaining friends, the latter is alone. Stranger comes back as a ghost and tells Joe that he has forgiven him. The man from the stretcher is in fact Stranger’s father, and he still wants to kill the child who caused the fire. The play ends with a very short scene, in which Joe says he is “the last person in the world”.

Mannequin

Actor and puppet

Young audiences

Bond Edward

Great Britain

London

Cambridge

Child

Violence

Conflagration

Dramatic

Tragic

Edward Bond, The Children &amp; Have I None, 2000.

English

Mother

Murderer

Blow with an object

Wandering

Actor speaking to an object

Massacre scene

The Children

Les Enfants

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.