On the stage, the Interpreter, who is a kind of demiurge, makes Earth appear and disappear into space. He then announces that the tree Yggdrasil will appear, along with three boxes. From the first box emerge gods from different religions, from the second one come out mythological and historical heroes as well as demons. The third box does not open up, but it moves, revealing that the box contains a being. The Interpreter calls him “the Messiah” and declares that he will come to “damn creation” - it is the announcement of the birth of the future main character of the Drama for Fools: Cockatrice.

Not specified

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Rapallo

Printed

Latin Mythology

Greek mythology

Germanic mythology

Cosmos

Pre-Columbian mythology

Hero

Divinities

Heroic

English

Something Prophetic

Amon

Divinity

Erebus

Cronos

Brahma

Eros

Jehovah

Quetzalcoatl

Kneph

Zeus

Jesus

Momus

Odin

Vishnu

Shiva

Poseidon

Maira Monan

Osiris

Baldr

Thor

Vulcan

Mars

Bacchus

Buddha

Hercules

Charlemagne (King)

King Arthur

Joan of Arc

Julius Caesar

Alexander The Great

Minamoto no Yoshitsune

Samurai

Agamemnon

Ulysses

Pompey

Aeneas

Achilles

Irin-Mage

Napoleon

Horatio Nelson

Apparition

Announcer

Fight

Apparition of a monster

Hidden character

Warning signs

The Second Prologue

Le deuxième prologue

In the first part, Roberto talks to the Intendente (Police officer) about the beauty of the play that is about to start; he asks him for permission to perform it. The Intendente allows him to speak; he is thus symbolising censorship. Roberto introduces himself as a “child of the people” but also as “the grandson of Gil Vicente”, the famous Portuguese playwright (1465?-1536?); he requests a round of applause. In the second and third parts, Roberto simply reveals the title of the plays that are to be performed.

Glove-puppet

Santa-Rita Augusto de (aka Santa-Rita)

Portugal

Lisbon

Typed or electronic text with handwritten annotations

Dom Roberto

Censorship

Police

Comical

Augusto de Santa Rita, Prólogo (first page with the censorship approval stamp).

Portuguese

Roberto

Policeman

Gil Vicente

Prologue

Metatheatre

Prólogo

In a tavern, Virgili presents four short stories that take place in a circus and have the themes of solitude, failure and death in common. A clown, in love with a trapeze artist, kills her partner; a trainer treats his wife as if she were a circus animal and ends up killing her; a young juggler kills his father with the needles he uses to inject cocaine; a soldier, a musician in the circus band who raped girls and killed children during the war, ends up shot as a deserter.

The Second Prologue

Something Prophetic

Prólogo

El circ de la fosca

Obra per a un actor i titelles