Guignol is riddled with debts and can no longer provide for his wife and his daughter Madelon. To get him out of trouble, his friend Grinchitoux suggests that he become an “apache” – that is, a thief – like him. Madelon begs her boyfriend Pintrus to prevent it. Grinchitoux takes Guignol to the edge of the forest, where he is asked to cause accidents and rob the travellers. When Guignol refuses, Grinchitoux threatens him with a gun. Pintrus tries to take Guignol back home, but the latter drives him off. The Baron de Pierrafeu’s car crashes. His valet Trouillard (meaning “lily-livered”) flees, and the Baron is taken inside a cave. Grinchitoux tortures him, until the Baron reveals where his money is hidden and hands him the key to his castle. The Baron is then left for dead. While Grinchitoux fails to find the money, Guignol, who was keeping watch, repents. Pintrus arrives and urges Guignol to flee, as the police is on its way – led by the Baron, who is still alive. Grinchitoux kills the valet Trouillard, then the Baron. He is apprehended by the Gendarme (policeman). Guignol is safe and alive, and he has become a perfect husband. He agrees to Madelon and Pintrus’ marriage. Grinchitoux is sentenced to death. He makes an attempt at escaping, but Guignol catches him, and he is hanged. Guignol treats the policeman and the hangman to a drink.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Printed

Debt

Bad husband

Devil

False friend

Robber

Burglar

Murderer

Accident

Ambush

Retribution

Repentance

Melodramatic

Dramatic

Didactic

Cover page of Henry de Graffigny's Guignol Apache

French

Mélodrame en cinq actes

Guignol

Painter

Lover

Baron

Valet de chambre

Domestic servant

Guignol’s wife

Madelon

Daughter

Guignol’s daughter

Mrs  Gribiche

Constable

Executioner

Chase

Blow-with-a-stick

Domestic scene

Aside

Offstage

Off-stage noise

Gunshot

Monologue

Hanging scene

Scene of torture

Fake death

Murder on stage

Death on stage

Guignol apache

A Priest, whose face looks like those painted by Fra Angelico, gets out of his house, smiling at life. While hearing noise from the modern city and the industrial world, he changes his expression and his voice to better fit the expectations of a churchman. He sees a Soldier and accuses him of having a mistress. The Soldier tells him that his wife is living with the Lawyer. The Lawyer comes and shares his disapproval concerning the Merchant, who openly commits adultery with the Doctor’s wife. The Merchant then exposes the affair between the Doctor and the Actor’s wife, as well as the one between the Actor’s wife and the Doctor’s wife and the Doctor’s daughter’s passion for the Actor. Each of these revelations is followed by the exclamation “It is too much!” from the previous characters, and with a change of expression emphasizing the hypocrisy of their outrage. The Doctor and the Actor enter together, and the Doctor declares that all the women of the village are in love with the Poet. All men rush to their homes to find their wives. The Priest remains alone and asks Mary, his servant, who we can tell is his partner, to set the table to receive the Poet for lunch. He will be accompanied by all of his wives and the children he had with them. The play ends when the children get on stage, through a door opening in the sky and under a rain of rose petals.

String marionette

Not specified

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Marina di Pisa

Hypocrisy

Unfaithfulness

Indignation

Religion

Morality

Comical

Satirical

English

Priest

Soldier

Merchant (man)

Actor

Doctor

Poet

Lover (woman)

Change of head on sight

Song

Running gag

Off-stage voice

Avista

Entrance by a hole in the back cloth

Rain of flowers

It is too much

C'en est trop

In Igor’s bar in Iceland, Erik le Rouge observes a curious whale that seems to be waiting for something. He relates his unhappy childhood and his life as a sailor to the barman, Benêt (the simpleton) and Vieux (the old man). He realises that the stranger, who took shelter from the rain in the bar, is his old captain. However, the stranger does not recognise him and leaves the bar. Then, Erik remembers the captain’s name – Igor – just before he (Erik) is swallowed by the whale.

Actor and puppet

France

Metz

Switzerland

Neuchâtel

Iceland

Whale

Navy

Tempest

Childhood

Father

Nostalgia

Tragic

Black comedy

Sailor

barman

Old man

Captain

Dialogue between actor and puppet

Object coming to life

Fight with an animal

Slaps

Igor Hagard

King Mirambole is tyrannical, vain and hypochondriac, and he wants to marry. Three rival courtiers (the Doctor, the Astrologer and the Goldsmith) flatter the King, smear one another and conspire to persuade him to choose a woman from their respective families as his wife. The Doctor convinces the King that only a comet put on his forehead will cure him of all his pains. To cause the Astrologer’s downfall, he also advises the King to leave this task to him. The Astrologer suggests that the King ask the Goldsmith to make one, while the Goldsmith persuades the King to entrust the Doctor and the Astrologer with the task. In the end, the valet Pierrot commits to bringing the king a comet. Pierrot goes to his brother, an innkeeper, brings back a bottle of “comet wine” and convinces his niece Balibutte to follow him. When he comes back to the palace, he introduces his niece as a comet embodied in a woman, and he cures the king with the wine. Balibutte relates a dream to the king, which both exposes the courtiers’ betrayals and tells him how to punish them. The king executes the courtiers, marries Balibutte and names Pierrot grand vizier.