Guignol’s aunt has recently died. She has left him “L’Auberge des Adrets”, a dilapidated inn set remotely in the mountains. Guignol’s cousin, Martin, is staying there and waiting for Guignol to arrive, but he is uneasy: it is rumoured that the building is haunted, and a hiding place for outlaws on the run. Guignol arrives on Christmas Eve and Martin returns to the village. While Guignol inspects the place, Gnafron and Cadet walk into the inn – unbeknown to Guignol. The two friends have come to rehearse a horror scene for a film on a thieving gang that used to steal from isolated houses and kill their residents. Guignol tries to sleep on an old mattress, but he is repeatedly bothered – by a mouse, a spider, a cat, then two snakes, all living in the shack. Gnafron and Cadet rehearse the scene in which they kill the innkeeper. Guignol hears them and believes that they want to murder him. In the dark, he then pretends to be a ghost, to scare them away. Gnafron and Cadet are scared at first, but they finally recognise their friend Guignol. The three of them make a toast and wish one another a merry Christmas.

Glove-puppet

France

Lyon

Printed

Inheritance

Christmas Eve

Phantom

Fear

Snake

Robber

Fake ghost

Talking cinema

Haunted house

Christmas

Comical

Fantastic

French

ou l'Auberge des fantômes

Guignol

Gnafron

Cadet

Monologue

Rehearsal (play within a play)

Dramatic irony

Disguise

Final song

Comedy of language

Le Noël de Guignol

Guignol’s Christmas or The Inn of the ghosts

The puppeteer apologises to the audience because he is not ready to perform Macbeth: instead, he will perform an unpublished comedy by Goldoni, The Jealous Emigrant (which is, in fact, a fake written on purpose by Brunello). But one of his glove puppets, Arlequin, disagrees and organises a rebellion, convincing the other puppets to perform Macbeth. The tragedy begins, but Arlequin, who has dared to step out of his role, must die like Macbeth. The same applies to his antagonist King Duncan, who - as we discover at the end - is no other than the puppeteer himself.

Bare hand

Actor and puppet

Adults

Brunello Gigio

Molnár Gyula (aka Giulio Molnár)

Italy

Mogliano Veneto

Rebellion

Self-consciousness of puppets

Rewriting

Adaptation

Fake unpublished

Shakespeare

Tragic

Ironic

Italian

Rodolfo

Colombina

Brighella

Lady Macbeth

Arlecchino

Macbeth

Pantaloon

Macduff

Balanzone

Generico

Witch

Messenger

Guardian

Sicaire

Monkey

Comical regional accent

Theatre within the theatre

Double characters

Address to the public

Apparition of the puppeteer

Surprise effect

Captatio benevolentiae

Tragic irony

Tragic conflict

Parody of formal language

Avista

Macbeth all'improvviso

Improvised Macbeth