Two rats, Monsieur le Rat Deschamps (literally, Mister the Rat From-the-countryside), an elector, and Monsieur le Rat Deville (literally, Mister the Rat From-the-city) - candidate in the election, attend a dinner party organised to secure votes. Deschamps questions Deville on a number of subjects, and especially on his oratorical skills. Deville admits to not being a real orator; he reveals that he only knows how to imitate the voice of others and immediately illustrates his abilities. However, Deschamps questions his honesty and declares: “Ayant trop de voix, vous n’aurez pas la mienne” (“You have too many voices, you will not have mine”; in French, “voix” means both “voices” and “vote”). Deville does not despair and, addressing the audience, asks for support.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

France

Paris

Vichy

Printed

Elections

Corruption

Dinner

Meals

Comical

Satirical

Lemercier de Neuville, Les Deux Rats, 1866.

French

Member of parliament

Elector

Play in verse

Aside

Aria

Animalised character

Imitation

Address to the public

Instrumental tune

Allusion to current political events

Les Deux rats

The Two Rats

Two families, the Gobards and the Courbemanches, are driving to visit the military camp in Saint-Maur. On the way, they notice an accident, which sparks their conversation. When they arrive, they meet a Zouave and start talking with him. Later, they go to the camp of the Turcos (African infantrymen) and meet the Tambour-major (Drum major). They are asked to go to dinner: everyone is there apart from Agathe, the servant. The voice of a man as well as laughter can be heard coming from the woods, which scares the family as they were about to start their meal. Agathe returns, but it starts raining and everyone ends up drenched, tired and starving. The Gobards and the Courbemanches call it a night and part ways. Agathe is the only one who seems to have enjoyed the trip.

Family

Bourgeoisie

Journey

Army

Colonial troupe

Algeria

Lemercier de Neuville, I Pupazzi. Front cover of the first edition, 1866.

Husband

Wife

Daughter

Servant

Soldier

Zouave

Rifleman

Situation comedy

Comedy of language

Comic distortion of language

Dinner scene

Off-stage voice

Amphigory

Le Camp de Saint-Maur

Saint-Maur Camp

The play is set in Orleans in 1867. Madame Pétenvert (a widow) and Mademoiselle Euphémie are accommodating two captains – Vachard and Chiclair – for three months. They quickly fall in love with their guests and would like to marry them. However, the two captains take advantage of the situation and spend their time talking, in a light-hearted manner, about politics, the army and, at the same, about women, billiards and their love of good food. One day, they are invited to dinner at the colonel’s house. The dinner ends with the two captains being drunk and getting the landladies’ houses mixed up. Thus, the two men being sick, captain Vachard spends the night with Mademoiselle Euphémie while captain Chiclair sleeps with Mademoiselle Pétenvert. The following day, after leaving the houses, they both accuse each other of having disrespected them, because of the state of their slippers and of the beds. However, this conversation about honour ends up being a commentary on the night they have just spent with the two women. The captains accuse the colonel of having treated them “too well” and the latter, in response, orders them to go back to their respective landladies and to marry them.

Maurice Sand (Maurice Sand)

Nohant

Politics

Glutton

Entertainment

Unfaithfulness

Wedding

Eugène Lambert, George Sand, Maurice Sand : marionette de Madame Pétenvert.

La Garnison d’Orléans, Les Deux Capitaines.

Captain

Colonel

Waiter

Widow

Host

Domestic servant

Nous dînons chez le colonel

We are dining at the colonel's

From a bag, the Montreur (Puppet Master) takes the puppets of Punch and Tobby the dog to perform his show. Punch and Tobby meet a deceptive fortune-teller who foresees a tragic future for Punch. Punch and Tobby steal her money, run away, and play a nasty trick on Commissaire (superintendent) Gambrinus. The Adjoint (second in charge) goes after them but ends up being beaten up with a huge stick. Punch meets Judith, and the Montreur pairs them as pimp and prostitute: she seduces the clients and he knocks them out. Later on, Judith gives birth to an adult Anatole, and Punch kills the Professeur (professor) Levieux. The Hydre (Hydra) (“a constant pain in the arse”, at the same time solicitor and social worker) wants to withdraw the custody of Anatole from his father, Punch. They argue and behead the child. Punch kills the Hydre and then strangles Judith. The Commissaire and the Adjoint catch Punch. The trial requires a psychiatrist, but Punch hits the Psycha-cho-chiatre (play on the French word for psychiatrist) and runs off again. He sleeps with Commissaire Gabrinus’ wife, but the Commissaire catches them in the act. Punch is sentenced to death, but he manages to have the Bourreau (executioner) beheaded instead. The Diable (Devil) appears as Tobby and fights Punch but Punch kills him, escaping the fortune-teller’s prediction.

Adults

Choisy-le-Roi

Cruelty

Serial murder

Prostitution

Couple

Abortion

Education

Justice

Revenge

Stick

Polemical

Gore

La Ballade de Mister Punch, poster, 1976.

Punch

Judy

Puppeteer

Child

Police Superintendant

Policeman

Physician

Guardian

Social worker

Judge

Voice

Hand

Psychiatrist

Lawyer

Executioner

Devil

Mise-en-abyme

Slaps

Dialog between a puppet and its puppeteer

Blow-with-a-stick

Song

Chase

Domestic scene

Childbirth on stage

Murder on stage

Apparition of the puppeteer

Character thrown out of the scene

Hanging scene

Final intervention of the devil

La Ballade de Mister Punch

Mister Punch’s ballad

Mademoiselle (Miss) Félicité, a foreign doctoral student, pays a visit to Morched – a master puppeteer – to buy his puppets. Her request is categorically denied because, in Morched’s eyes, puppetry is ancestral work. However, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the authorities censored traditional Iranian culture and Morched is forbidden from practicing his trade. In spite of this prohibition, he decides to use his puppets one last time to tell the love story between Pahlévâne and Sarvé-Nâz Khânome, which will soon be made impossible because of the Mullahs, who support their friend Mobârak (“a mischievous servant”). Unable to destroy his puppets, Morched – just before he dies – decides to entrust them to Mademoiselle Félicité, who will be able to keep the memory of his work alive.

Actor and puppet

Puppets

Student

Love

Power

Transmission

Religion

Current events

Daily life

Bans

Political context

Death

Epic

Dramatic

Frédéric de Manassein, cover art for Mémoires d'une marionnette.

Journal d'une marionnette

Mobârak

Young man

Monster

Horse

King

Prince

Priest

Young woman

Herald

Guard

Deux Balayeurs, Torch-Ali Bak et Chirin-ali Bak (jumeaux)

Twins

Eunuch

Vehicle

Ambassador

Quelques Dignitaires civils et militaires

Dancer

Comic speech

Multi-voice shouting

Versified passages

Monologue

Hands visible

Apparition of a monster

Death on stage

Mémoires d'une marionnette

Memoirs of a puppet

A theatre director has hired Polichinelle for the evening, but Polichinelle is late for the show. When he comes on, he is haunted by the ghost of his conscience, that chastises him for his very instinctive personality. Following the director’s questions concerning what is tormenting him, Polichinelle uses glove-puppets to play episodes from his childhood, when he was often punished for his misdemeanour. Once the flashback is over, Polichinelle wants to improvise some jokes, but the director forbids him from tackling political themes. As he does not know what kind of show to put on, Polichinelle keeps talking about his past – how his parents had him then abandoned him for lack of money, and his first heartbreaks. Polichinelle and the director argue. The latter summons Illness and Death, who want to take Polichinelle with them. While screaming that he is an immortal character, Polichinelle manages to drive them out – thus saving theatre and also making up with the director.

Nordmann Jean-Gabriel

Meung-sur-Loire

Childhood

Remembrance

Illness

Unrequited love

Parents

Argument

Grotesque

Fable théâtrale pour comédiens et marionnettes

Polichinelle

Director

Father

Mother

Nurse

Schoolteacher

Scene fragment

Seduction scene

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Fight

Sous le masque tu es mortel pauvre orphelin !

Behind the mask you are mortal poor orphan!

In an atmosphere recreating the Soviet Union in the 1970s, two actors greet the audience in Russian. They are wearing blond wigs and handing out tickets made of tissues. An old record player, a table with an ancient television covered with a crocheted doily and small china dogs, among other objects, form a kitschy setting. The paper figures show a nose coming off the face of author Nikolai Gogol and going into a bottle of port wine on the table, next to a turtle with Marine Le Pen’s face. Then Theresa May flies across space aboard a T-Rex. Vladimir Putin is turned into a zebra in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body, with Sacha Baron Cohen’s legs (Borat). He will then appear in a two-headed heart alongside Donald Trump. Finally, Jacques Prévert’s and Luís de Camões’s lines are recited and accompanied by an unusual and varied soundtrack (Iggy Pop, Serge Gainsbourg, Juliette Gréco, Yves Montand).

Toy theatre

Object theatre

All audiences

Portugal

Lisbon

Storyboard

Social criticism

Nose

Music

Kitsch

Collage

Culture

Absurd

Este não é o nariz de Gogol mas podia ser... com um toque de Jacques Prévert (Compagnie A Tarumba, 2016)