Kasperl returns drunk from the tavern and his wife Grethl refuses to let him in. He meets the night watchman, whom he frightens by pretending to be a ghost. He picks up the halberd and the lantern that the watchman dropped in his flight. That night, the moon is off duty and wanders through the streets. Kasperl apprehends it for wandering at night: as the moon refuses to comply, he strikes it in the face with his halberd, which destroys it. He then meets death and beats it with a stick. Finally the rooster crows. Kasperl is annoyed that the rooster can't say anything except "cock-a-doodle-doo" and kills it, then brings it back to Grethl for a meal: when she sees the poultry, she lets him come inside.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Drunkenness

Drunkard

Couple

Night

City

Village

Celestial body

Phantom

Ghost

Halberd

Poultry

Chicken

Tavern

Fantasy

Burlesque

German

Kasperl

Madame Kasperl

Night watchman

Moon

Death

Cock, cockerel

Apparition

Disguise

Animated natural element

Personification

Domestic scene

Versified passages

Fight

Metatheatre

Kasperl als Nachtwächter

Kasperl the night watchman

Polichinelle, Pierrot, and Arlequin, want to marry Colombine, the daughter of the wealthy Cassandre. The three suitors are alike in their mediocrity; Cassandre asks his daughter to choose the one that will be her husband. To win her hand, Polichinelle gifts her a ham, Pierrot a bottle of wine, and Arlequin a dandelion bouquet. She violently rejects Polichinelle and Pierrot, and chooses Arlequin. Polichinelle and Pierrot team up to isolate Arlequin, murder him and bury his corpse. They plan on pretending to be Arlequin and his valet in order to marry Colombine and get hold of her father’s money. However, Arlequin, exhumed and reanimated by a pig, arrives just in time to interrupt the wedding between Pierrot (who took his appearance) and Colombine. Pierrot and Arlequin made the pig, the only witness of their crime, disappear (they ate it), so Cassandre does not know what is the truth and who the real Arlequin is. He will accept as the real Arlequin the one who will bring him 1,000 écus. However, Arlequin is poor, and Pierrot gained 1,000 écus after selling his kitchenware: he will marry Colombine the next day. Distressed by their conscience and their gut issues, Pierrot and Polichinelle suffer from a terrible Cauchemar (Nightmare) accompanied with a Gendarme-Saucisse (Sausage-Constable) and a Commissaire-Andouille (Andouille-Superintendent) who repeatedly hit them. Polichinelle and Pierrot call for help, admit to their crimes and express remorse. Colombine and Arlequin can now marry.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

France

Paris

Conspiracy

Murder

Cipidity

Gluttony

Deception

Nightmare

Marrying for money

Remorse

Relationship between man and animal

Hunger

Comical

Parodistic

Farcical

Grotesque

Duranty, ilustration for "La Tragédie d'Arlequin" (Théâtre des marionnettes du Jardin des Tuileries, 1862).

French

Cassandre

Cassandra

Colombina

Colombine

Pierrot

Arlecchino

Polichinelle

Scrap metal dealer

Constable

Police Superintendant

Dream

Spectacular turn of events

Fainting

Off-stage voice

Dance

Song

Bucket of water poured on someone's head

Blow-with-a-stick

Ellipsis

Hidden character

Beating with pots

Blow

Dinner scene

Back Stroke

La Tragédie d'Arlequin

Arlequin’s tragedy

Thanks to a new type of telescope that brought the Moon at one metre, the astronomer Télescopos and his servant Babylas, the watchman of the Observatory of Monaco, made a breakthrough; they end up on the Moon and are unable to leave. They meet strange and fantastic people, either allegorical or taken from recent events. As the Moon is waning, the residents have less and less space and want to go back to Earth. Télescopos, Babylas’s master, builds a new telescope to accomplish that. The play ends with a cellist reciting verses as payment for the journey back to Earth.

Silhouette

Shadow theatre

Adults

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

Principality of Monaco

Monte Carlo

Strike

Invention

Telescope

Women's condition

Divorce

Gender equality

Government

Corruption

Social issue

Shelter

Colonialism

Parliament

Decadence

Astronomy

Psychological novel

Pantheon

Celebrity

Tourism

Fashion phenomenon

Satirical

Revue fantaisiste en 3 actes

Astronomer

Domestic servant

Writer

Member of parliament

Savage

Guardian

Singer

Actress

Singer (female)

Cellist

Ballet

Caricature

Aria

Current affairs

As-tu vu la lune, mon gas ?

Have you seen the moon, mate?

Lord Grey and John Bull are looking for a pretext to declare war on Germany, which is competing with England in the field of industrial development. The announcement of the murder of François-Ferdinand in Sarajevo, related by Kasperl, Grey’s servant, provides them with one such pretext, but they have to distort the event and make it seem as if Austria attacked Serbia. Grey and John Bull gather their allies from the Triple Entente, Prince Wodkasoff and Delcassé. They also join forces with the devil of lies. Kasperl lets a word of indignation slip, and he is thrown in prison. On the German side, Germania warns her husband Michel about the rapacity of their neighbours, when Kasperl, just escaped from prison, comes to warn them about the conspiracy planned by the countries of the Entente. The devil of lies tries to play Hans off against his parents, Germania and Michel, but he is struck with a stick. Wary of Italy, the Germans ally themselves with Josef (the Czech) and Janos (the Hungarian): the Triple Entente goes to war. In 1914-1915, the countries of the Entente fail to make progress against the enemy. Desperate, Grey seeks advice in hell, where King Edward VII plays cards with Pluto and Kitchener. Mammon, the devil of money, is thus sent to corrupt the countries who remained neutral. In Italy, he will even corrupt the poet D’Annunzio in order to make the people rise against Germany. In order to hasten Mammon’s return, Pluto puts the clock forward by one year: it is now 1916-1917, and Grey has been replaced by Lloyd George, a more energetic man. But Lloyd George also goes seek advice in hell. Mammon’s intervention was not sufficient to weaken Germany’s resistance. The devil of lies comes again on the stage, disguised as an angel of peace, to announce that the United States have entered the war. There is an uproar in hell. Pluto concludes the play with a reminder that he will always be the one to win, no matter what: either Germany is victorious, and he retrieves the souls of Grey, Lloyd George, Iswolski, Northcliff, Delcassé “and so on”, or England wins, and planet Earth becomes hell, meaning that Pluto could enjoy his retirement.

Fritz von Ostini (Friedrich von Ostini, aka Fritz von Ostini)

England

Hell

Propaganda

Politics

Treason

Italy

Gabriele d'Annunzio

Austria-Hungary

Bohemia (Czech republic)

United States of America

Russia

Trade

Industry

Money

Capitalism

Imperialism

First World War

Title page of Grey &amp; Co, showing a caricature of Lord Grey

King Edward's unselige Erben

Devil

Black Man

Germania

Hans

Pluto

King Edward VII

Mammon

Moneylender

Fury

Allegory

Catastrophe

Apparition of the Devil

Political allegory

Splitting of the body

Play in verse

Pact with the devil

Final intervention of the devil

Grey & Co

The first scene is set in the infirmary of a prisoner camp in Germany, at midnight, during the First World War. A French prisoner thinks about his lost loved ones: his wife, his son Jean (a pilot who died in combat), and his grand-children who were left orphans. At that moment arrives the Lune (Moon), “the Queen of Dreams”; she takes him to the land of dreams, and shows him a nursery in Hostiaz.
The second scene introduces an Ours en peluche (teddy Bear) sleeping on a child’s bed. The Lune addresses the Ours and during their conversation we learn that the Ours is in fact a shady businessman who fled to South America after ruining his shareholders. In vain, the Lune tries to convince the Ours to return the stolen money (represented by a diamond hidden in the Ours’ belly). She then starts sharing her heartbreaks: she is in love with Paul, a pilot who was amputated of both his legs. Having learnt of the Lune’s wealthiness, the Ours offers his services to help her gain the Aviateur’s (Pilot’s) love.
Paul opens the third scene, which is set in a living room, where he is with another character, the Rhabilleur (Clock restorer). The Lune tries to seduce Paul but he is the object of the Ours’ mockeries because he received a break-up letter from his fiancée. The Ours tries, in vain, to convince Paul to find comfort with the Lune. We learn that Paul is the brother-in-law of Jean, the dead pilot and son of the prisoner who appeared in the first scene.
A certain Rhodô, who is in love with Jean, took care of the children. The Ours decides to marry Paul to Rhodô because he is attracted to her, but she stays faithful to Jean. The Ours then tries to kiss Rhodô to get hold of her wallet. This triggers a general fight during which the Ours, with his belly ripped open, lets the diamond slip – it explodes in a blinding light. As the sun rises, all the characters run away. 
The fourth scene starts. All the puppets are on the main road. The Ours feels light now that he is rid of the diamond. The Choeur (Choir) and Rhodô teach Paul how to float in the air like a kite. A black dwarf arrives, driving a car. The puppets all climb into the car and drive off to a world beyond. 
The play ends at dawn with the Prisonnier (Prisoner) waking up. After having experienced the bliss of mystical freedom in his dream, he is now condemned to go back to this “eternal captivity”.

All audiences

Brazil

Jail

Adventure

Bear

Love

Rivalry in love

Fighting

Renunciation

Freedom

Philosophical tale

Fantastic

Cover for the first edition: La Nouvelle Revue française, Gaston Gallimard, Paris, 1919.

Illusory world

Dreamt scene

Love rivalry

Brawl

Ascent to heaven

L'Ours et la lune

The Bear and the Moon

A runaway slave meets a dragon which threatens to breathe fire on him; he asks the dragon whether it has the sultan’s permission to do so, predicting that the dragon will eat his former master before the guard kills it. But things do not turn out exactly as expected. Right before the audience, the dragon meets a knight who wants the sultan to recognise his superiority to become a knight too. The sultan refuses to talk, appointing the dragon to speak in his stead and authorising him to breathe fire on the knight. The slave returns in order to sit on the throne that he thinks empty – and it is indeed soon to be the case, because the sultan suddenly decides to follow in the deceased knight’s footsteps and take his place. Meanwhile, the fat Katja, who was dancing and singing for the sultan, has moved in with the dragon, and everyone is invited for coffee.

Kasperl als Nachtwächter

La Tragédie d'Arlequin

As-tu vu la lune, mon gas ?

Revue fantaisiste en 3 actes

Grey & Co

King Edward's unselige Erben

L'Ours et la lune

Der glückliche Ritter von Trinitat

Wie wird man Oberdiskutierer

Histoires post-it

ou On est bien peu de chose quand même !

Ceci n'est pas un nez