The fisherman Colin finds a golden vase in his nets. The genie Elemaliga is imprisoned inside it. As a gesture of gratitude for having delivered him, Elemaliga bestows magical powers to Colin. With this magical help, Colin triumphs over his rival Philippe, recovers the fortune he should have inherited and marries Lisbette.

Body shadows

Not specified

Marion de Salins Pierre

France

Printed

Swindling

Wedding

Love

Fishing

Seduction

Inheritance

Fantasy

Comical

L'Heureuse Pêche, cover page

French

Comédie pour les ombres à scènes changeantes

Fisherman

Peasant (man)

Genie

Apparition of a genie

Disappearance

Love rivalry

Song

Invisible character

Final song

L'Heureuse Pêche

The Happy Catch

With the hope of finding some gold, Pierrot and Polichinelle break into the Sorcier’s (Sorcerer) house, but they are caught by a Poule noire (Black Hen) that attacks them. Polichinelle runs away with the Poule, but Pierrot, trapped, hides in a cauldron. Panicked, the Sorcier calls his colleagues for help, and they all try to bring the Poule back using a potion prepared in the cauldron. Pierrot moves around in the cauldron (which makes the Sorciers run away) and uncovers himself. To punish him, the Sorcier turns his head into that of a donkey. Meanwhile, Polichinelle is starving and kills the Poule, making it disappear: the Diable (Devil) appears in its stead. To punish Polichinelle, the Diable gives him the head of a red donkey. Polichinelle and Pierrot come back and threaten the Sorcier into giving them their appearance back; the Sorcier tells them that he lost his powers when he lost his Poule. Pierrot searches through the Sorcier’s potions and finds a cream that gives him his head back. However, the Sorcier runs away with the cream, chased by Pierrot. A Cocher (Coachman) arrives, thinks that Polichinelle is gorgeous, whips him and wants to hitch him to his cart. Polichinelle defends himself with his stick and the Cocher runs away. Desperate to get his head back, Polichinelle tries another one of the Sorcier’s creams, but his head turns into that of a pig. A Charcutier (Pork butcher) sees Polichinelle and is in awe of the talking pig; Polichinelle thinks that he is insane and chases him away with his stick. Pierrot comes back with the remedy, and Polichinelle gets his real head back. Polichinelle leaves with Pierrot and encounters the Sorcier: he kills him with a single blow of a stick.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Paris

Sorcery

Naivety

Cauldron

Donkey

Farcical

Fantastic

Magician

Sorcerer

Polichinelle

Pierrot

Devil

Coachman

Pork butcher

Metamorphosis

Apparition of the Devil

Chase

Hidden character

Dance

Running gag

Blow-with-a-stick

Whiplash

Death on stage

Unexpected turn of events

Characterisation through onomatopoeia

La Poule noire

The Black Hen

Polichinelle and Pierrot earn their living as woodcutters in a forest. The Genie of Benevolence and Charity appears to them in the guise of an old, hungry beggar. Against Polichinelle's advice, Pierrot shares their meagre meal with him. To reward him, the Genie gives Pierrot a magic wand (the ‘talisman’) that will grant all his wishes, provided they are just. But Pierrot, satisfied with his lot, desires nothing. He therefore grants Polichinelle's wishes: to eat and drink abundantly, to wear fine clothes and to be transported home to impress his wife. Meanwhile, in the Polichinelle cottage, Mrs Polichinelle complains to her neighbour, Mrs Gripanchu, about her husband's violence and laziness, and consoles herself by drinking wine. Polichinelle then bursts in, gets angry with his wife and violently chases Mrs Gripanchu away. Mrs Polichinelle tries to appease her husband. Pierrot arrives and tries to calm the couple down, but Polichinelle takes his wand and hits his wife with it. The Devil then appears and carries Mrs Polichinelle away, much to her husband's satisfaction.
Polichinelle then encourages Pierrot to use the magic wand to break into the house of Gripouillard, a crooked financier, and learn from him how to become rich. Pierrot and Polichinelle appear in his living room during his dinner. Gripouillard wants to flee, but Pierrot touches him with the talisman, wishing him to become virtuous. Transformed, the financier donates all his possessions to Polichinelle and Pierrot. While Pierrot rejoices at having brought justice, Polichinelle wants to take advantage of Gripouillard's riches. He grabs the talisman and wishes for Pierrot to be sent five hundred feet underground. Pierrot finds himself locked up in the kingdom of a Gnome who believes he has come to steal his riches. Finally convinced of Pierrot's honesty, the Gnome agrees to release him, on condition that Pierrot promises to use his talisman to transform him into the Genie of the Air. Once at the top of the magic mountain, Pierrot invokes the Genie of Good to ask for his help. The Genie tells Pierrot that he can only recover his talisman by changing Polichinelle's true nature through kindness. Through a vision, he shows him Polichinelle settled in the Manor of Eagles, where he now calls himself the Count of Polinel. Pierrot goes to the manor, where he finds Gripouillard in rags but happy.
The ruthless Polichinelle has Pierrot arrested and wants to have him hanged. The Genie of Good then appears and frees Pierrot. Far from repenting, Polichinelle threatens the Genie with the talisman, but the Genie transports Pierrot and Polichinelle to the Palace of the Genies. Polichinelle is condemned to be taken to Hell by the Devil. Pierrot asks the Genie to fulfil his promise to the Gnome, but the Genie refuses and replies that if the Gnome wants to steal, he should become a financier. The Genies organise a grand celebration in honour of Pierrot, the only good man, and the play ends on a high note.

Talisman

Magic object

Moral challenges

Méchant puni

Bien

Evil

Didactic

Cover of the play Le Talisman by Henry de Graffigny.

Financier

Banker

Moneylender

Crook

Cassandra

Executioner

Jailer

Judge

Police Superintendant

Gnome

Dwarf

Goblin

Mrs Polichinelle

Mrs  Gribiche

Gossiper

Mère Michel

Constable

Butler

Bourgeois

Disguised character (false identity)

Pyrotechnics

Avista

Apparition

Blow

Word warping

Aside

Monologue

Apotheosis

Le Talisman

The Talisman

An elderly woman lives in a cabin near a wood, with a teenager who believes himself to be her grandson. Some bandits steal a case holding documents on the young man’s life. The elderly woman explains to him that he is of royal blood; he decides to go avenge his parents. With the help of a powerful wizard and of other characters he met on his way, the Prince overcomes the tyrant who had taken over the kingdom, and is acknowledged by his mother. The performance ends with a big celebration.

Nino Pozzo (Matteo Pozzo)

Italy

Verona

Typewriting

Revenge

Encounter

Usurpation

Royals

Heroic

Italian

Old woman

Prince

Queen

Governess

Guard

Tyran

Rebel

Citizen

Fagiolino

Sandrone

Cook

Brighella

Prison guard

Facanapa

Scene of recognition

Smoke

Improvised dialogue

La riconquista del regno

The reconquest of the kingdom

On a beach by the Tyrrhenian Sea, a woman invokes the devil Serpentone. She wants to ask him to make her invincible and immortal so she can return to her village and take revenge on her compatriots who drove her out, calling her an old witch. The devil arrives, preceded by his deep, dark voice. He is ready to grant her immortality in exchange for something big, something you can see and touch. As the woman has nothing to hand, Serpentone gives her until midnight to find an offering before disappearing into the flames. The woman then prepares a potion in a big pot. Pulcinella, famished, passes by and plunges his head into the pot to eat the soup, but when he stands up again, he discovers he has a big donkey's head. Having effected the transformation, the woman gives the donkey to the devil who takes it to hell where he intends to kill it and make a drum out of its skin. But in trying to kill the animal, the devil frees Pulcinella from the spell. Pulcinella fights with the devil, kills him and escapes from hell to settle scores with the woman who turned him into a donkey. She is about to drink the wine the devil gave her to make her invincible. Realizing Pulcinella wants to kill her, she puts the blame on the audience: she turned Pulcinella into a donkey because the audience asked her to. The "cynical and ruthless" audience responds, saying the accusations are false and the woman is wicked. The audience, thus involved in the performance, finds itself acting out the scene recounted by the woman at the beginning of the show, where her compatriots insult her and drive her out. Pulcinella beats the witch to death with a broom, to much applause from the audience. The moral is that people who are different will always be hunted down without mercy.

Marotte

Castellammare di Stabia

Electronic text

Otherness

Harassment

Hate

Malice

Magic potion

Immortality

Deal with the Devil

Dramatic

Witch

Pulcinella

Audience

Teresina

Off-stage voice

Fight

Enchantment

Address to the public

Micro-mouvements

Swazzle

Dialogue with the audience

Pulcinella e l'asino del diavolo

Pulcinella et l'âne du diable

In his theatre, Mimmo is both an actor and a puppet showman. He is the boss of all the characters and can play all the roles: he plays the Harpo, an 'oggre' (ogre). But when he meets Lili, a "fragile and seductive" little puppet, everything falls into chaos. He wants to hold her, manipulate her as he pleases, and even eat her, and swallow her. She wants to escape, be able to move on her own, or even become human. Little Kouki, "the puppet’s puppet", wants the same thing, but Harpo and Mimmo prevent them from escaping. The dolls' bodies are abused, forced and violently injured. However, Harpo is finally unable to eat little Lili, even though his hunger makes him scream in pain. The scary ogre has fallen in love. The theatre becomes the backdrop for a fierce and hopeless love story.

Bare hand

Shadow theatre

Lemahieu Daniel

Bourg-en-Bresse

Ogre

Woman

Wrestling

Impossible love

Doll

Gender-based violence

Violence

Death

Murder

Manipulation

Poetry

Prosthesis

Tale

Fairy play

Noise

Hits

L'Ogre et la poupée

Guignol

Splitting of the body

Engulfment

Allegory

Building a puppet on sight

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Childbirth on stage

Active stage directions

Shape shifting

Change of size on sight

Grammelot

Repetition of a word

L'Oggre et la poupée

The ogre and the doll

Pinocchio has grown old; he is 124 years old, and his nose has become as long as a mammoth's trunk. He spends his life watching television, until the blue-haired Fairy turns him into a piece of wood, as he was at the beginning of his story. Pinocchio has to start again and relive his journey: first he has to find his father Geppetto, to become a puppet again. Pinocchio sets out to find him in the ocean (Geppetto was last seen in the belly of a whale...), but in his quest, he meets only some very strange people: Lamereocéan, a man who waters a forest of noses, Captain Nocchio and Captain Pino, and others (Bout d’alu [Piece-of-aluminum], Bout de plastique [Piece-of-plastic],Cassette vidéo [Video-Cassette]...) who also claim to be called Pinocchio and who, unlike Bout de bois [Piece-of-wood], all manage to find their father. He keeps searching, but nobody can tell him where his father is. Moreover, every time he asks someone for help (each time unsuccessfully), he is forced to give a piece of his body: Bout de bois [Piece-of-wood] becomes smaller and smaller. In the end, Pinocchio doesn’t find his father, but he gets married to blue-haired Petite Télé [Little-Television].And together, they will continue searching...