Polichinelle wants to be loved while he is dressed as the shepherd Philemon, but is rejected by Issé. Doris accepts Pan's love for a while. Hylas is in turn rejected by Issé. Issé questions the oracle of the oaks of Dodona who tells her that she will fall in love with the god of light. Issé refuses because she prefers Polichinelle. Polichinelle reveals himself to her as Apollo.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Manuscript with songs and dialogue summaries

Oracle

God disguised as a mortal

Greek mythology

Shepherd

Unrequited love

Seduction

Rivalry in love

Parodistic

French

Polichinelle

Philémon

Mother Gigogne

Doris

Compère

Pierrot

Hylas

Priest

Paysanne

Apollo

Misunderstanding

Unveiling

Spectacular turn of events

Ballet

Song

Dialogue with a character in the audience

Apollon Polichinelle

Apollo as Polichinelle

Two friends, Mooney and Spooney, meet. They had pulled a bad prank on the king and were fired for it. Thus, they decide to become stationmasters. Orlando has to take a train to Birmingham, which saddens his wife, Sophonisba. He reassures her by saying he will be home for dinner. They agree to eat mutton. Mooney and Spooney, now stationmasters, start singing instead of talking, as was required by Bradshaw. They meet Kaffir, a mysterious character who does not speak their language. According to Mooney, Kaffir wants to be a train driver. Mooney gives him the position. Mrs. Muddle reaches the platform. She wants to take the train to Birmingham and send a telegram from there. A two-legged Bradshaw’s Guide appears in front of Mooney and asks him in a loud voice why he is not singing. He adds that Spooney sings out of tune and that both of them must stop singing. Orlando, now at the train station, refuses to pay for his train ticket but is forced to do so by the stationmasters. He puts his luggage on the train and leaves to fetch the money. When he comes back an hour later, he learns that the train left with his luggage before the time given by the Bradshaw’s Guide. When the train heading to Birmingham pulls into the station, Spooney and Mooney go warn Mrs. Muddle, but she wants to take an omnibus over the train. She leaves, accusing them of wanting to trick her. When she comes back to pick up her things, she learns that the train left with them. Meanwhile, Sophonisba worries about her husband being late. Their cook, ruined the meal and offers to make an Irish stew instead. Orlando comes home and curses the Bradshaw because the trains do not leave according to the guide’s timetables. Bradshaw comes into play. He states that he took revenge and changed the train schedules because his order of singing was not respected.

Young audiences

Carroll Lewis

Great Britain

Croft-on-Tees

Printed

Train station

Revenge

Train times

Train

Journey

Comical

Humorous

Farcical

L. Carroll, La Guida di Bragia. The Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 1999.

English

Announcer

Stationmaster

Husband

Wife

Traveller

Cook

Situation comedy

Word warping

Personified object

La Guida di Bragia

The bachelor Gripandouille courted Polichinelle's wife, Colombine, who rejected him. Two jealous neighbours, Mrs Cassandra and Mrs Cababuche, slandered Columbine. To warn her of this, Gripandouile wrote her a letter in which he made an appointment with her. But this letter fell into the hands of the neighbours. Gripandouille found out about it and, wanting to take revenge, told Cassandra that his wife had an appointment with a lover. In the meantime, Mrs Cababuche told Polichinelle that Colombine had an appointment with her lover. Polichinelle went to the appointment but, mistaking Mr and Mrs Cassandra for Colombine and her lover, he beat them up. Then, realising his mistake, he hit Mrs Cababuche because she had lied to him. The two shrews then urged their husbands to kill Polichinelle, but he persuaded the two men to go and consult a sorcerer instead to find out the truth about their wives. The sorcerer revealed the wickedness of the two women. The Gendarme and the Commissioner, called in to administer justice, hanged the two women to the great satisfaction of the husbands.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Gossip

Vilification

Malice

Jealousy

Neighbour (Woman)

Letter

Unfaithfulness

Revenge of the husbands

Trap

Bad marriage

Satirical

Magician

Police Superintendant

Colombine

Hanging scene

Blow-with-a-stick

Les Voisines

The neighbours

Pierrot is harassing his rich neighbour Mrs Trifouillon to get her to marry him. He locks her out of her house, then hides in her wardrobe. He beats her, breaks her dishes, throws her furniture in the street and deprives her of food and rest to make her give in. They fight, then she goes out to find a gendarme. When the gendarme arrives, Pierrot mistakes him for Mrs Trifouillon and pretends to marry him. Then Pierrot beats the Gendarme and throws him out. He finds Mrs Trifouillon's piggy bank, but she manages to take it back. Under threat, she agrees to marry Pierrot, who beats her to the rhythm of a wedding song that she is forced to hum while dancing.

Animated object

Silver wedding

Harassment

Cipidity

Stock exchange

Blackmail

Forced marriage

Violence

Threat

Battered woman

Constable

Monologue

Beating with a broom

Hidden character

Ambush

Off-stage voices

Lazzi

Stone throwing

Aside

Headbutt

Throwing objects

Liquid spray

Final song

Running gag

Chase

Le Mariage de raison

The Marriage of reason

Two hungry lawyers are looking for clients by all means. One would like to urge Pierrot, the other Mme Bégriche to sue anyone under any pretext. But they refuse, flee and then hit the lawyers. The two lawyers join forces to create a dispute: one kills Pierrot's cat and accuses Mme Bégriche of the crime, while the other kills Mme Bégriche's parrot and blames the cat. Dragged to court by their lawyers, the two plaintiffs, victims of the Commissaire's stupidity, were sentenced to be hanged. But they escape without paying any fees and beat up the lawyers who are chasing them. The two lawyers blame each other for this failure and fight to death.

Hunger

Lawyer

Trial

Court

Speech for the defense

Parody of justice

Parrot

Injustice

Crime

Latin expressions

False testimony

Discord

Avocat

Animal

Fight to the death

Court scene

Parodic trial

Les Plaideurs malgré eux

The Plaintiffs in spite of themselves

The avant-garde painter Kompowski, annoyed by the critics who come to see him in his workshop, goes to the café. The drunken servant, Kasperl, takes advantage of his absence to paint a canvas with a very bad view of Munich. Gallery owners who had come to acquire the master's works bought his paintings from him for a thousand marks. The crowd comes to cheer the artist. But the critic Schaikeles eventually learns the identity of the real creator of the painting. Anzenmaier and Burger, the gallery owners, come to claim their money when Kompowski returns home, and the fight becomes widespread. Kasperl puts an end to this by smashing the paintings over the heads of the gallery owners and knocking Gombrowski out with his easel.

Blümel Otto

Germany

Munich

Painting

Futurism

Modernity

Expressionism

Art criticism

Drunkenness

Beer

Mean trick

Celebrity

Burlesque

German

Painter

Kasperl

Reviewer

Crowd

Versified passages

Caricature

Parody of formal language

Chorus

Instrumental tune

Brawl

Dialect

Die Maler

The painters

Two inhabitants from Gotham run into each other on a bridge. The first inhabitant asks the second one where he is going and what he is about to do. The second one answers that he is going to Gotham, and the first one adds that he is headed to Nottingham to buy sheep. After many misunderstandings, the second citizen states that he will forbid the first one to cross the bridge upon his return. They both fight with wooden sticks without actually hitting each other, and they raise a cloud of dust. A third inhabitant arrives with a donkey that carries sacks of wheat grains. He makes fun of them, and asks them to empty the sacks into the river to explain that their heads are as empty as these bags.

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Rapallo

London

Madness

Absurd

Peasant

A Blithering Interlude for Burattini

Dialogue of the deaf

Archaic speech

Comedy of language

Ridiculous fight

The Three Men of Gotham

Les Trois Hommes de Gotham

One day, little Agustí decides to grow a tree and plants a seed. But another child, Fidel, swaps the seed with another and the resulting tree produces a very special fruit: it contains the genie Eugeni, who punishes Fidel by beating him with a stick. Fidel asks for forgiveness and the genie throws confetti and sweets to the audience.

Lanuza Empar de

Spain

Valencia

Tree

Ecology

Environment

Tale

Seed

Candy

Theatre at school

Child

Punishment

Didactic

Fantasy

Catalan

Genie

Appearance of a genius

Un arbre genial

An amazing tree

Polichinelle and Pierrot rob a vegetable garden every night. The gardener sets up scarecrows. At first, the thieves tremble with fear and give up their loot before they discover the trickery. Then they put on the scarecrows' clothes to scare and hit the Gardener. The Gardener runs away, but he has recognised Pierrot and Polichinelle. He returns disguised as a ghost, but Pierrot and Polichinelle are not fooled and hit him again. When the Gardener wants to prevent Polichinelle from escaping, Polichinelle plants him in a pot with Pierrot's help. The wife frees her husband. They both fill a melon with powder and a wick. Pierrot and Polichinelle, mistaking the wick for a cigar, light it. The explosion sends Polichinelle and Pierrot flying out of the garden, but causes the house to collapse on the Gardener and his wife.